Cruel Intentions, Genuine Affections
by Hopeful Rays
Summary: A cruel bet has been made at Hogwarts. Sirius has 4 months to seduce his seemingly introvert dormmate Remus Lupin. He's confident of his goal... afterall who can reisist the legendary Black charm? But when his feelings develop into something undeniable he struggles to regain the trust of the boy who he so foolishly betrayed. Wolfstar: Remus L./Sirius B. (Eventual SLASH)
1. Chapter 1: Inception

**Chapter One: Inception**

Sirius squinted at the light filtering in through the gap in his maroon bed curtains, lifting his hand to shield his eyes from the offending light he felt an obstruction on his limb's journey. Glancing down, he realized that the unfamiliar warmth next to his body was actually another person. Frowning Sirius searched the recesses of his still hazy mind for information on the owner of the curly blonde hair that was sprawled across his pillow. Hufflepuff, fifth year, skinny build and an overly persistent personality those were the things that immediately came to him as he watched a pair of deep green eyes open and focus on his face.

"Morning love," she whispered before turning to curl into his side.

"Morning," Sirius replied gruffly as he watched her stretch to place a few chaste kisses on his shoulder. "Listen... It's getting kinda late, you should probably get back to your dorm before the common room starts filling up." Slipping his arm from underneath her body, he pushed himself into a sitting position and grabbed his wand from the bedside. Briefly glancing around to the other occupants of the room he summoning the girl's discarded clothes off the floor with a swish of his wand. "Here you go," he said stifling a yawn before grabbing a pair of trousers and slipping out of the bed giving her privacy to redress. When Sirius had reemerged from the bathroom, the skinny girl with blonde curl hair, Charlotte he remembered, was standing by the door of his dorm looking sheepishly at him.

"Well... I really enjoyed last night," she whispered before blushing and smiling up at him purposively, "hopefully if you're free soon we can do it again."

"Yeah, that'd be great," Sirius said quietly while peering yet again at the closed bed curtains of his roommates, turning back to Charlotte he flicked his wand sharply before encircling both of them in a light mist. "This should get us through the common room without anyone seeing you" was all he said before opening the door and ushering her down the stairs. Walking quickly and saying very little Sirius was able to get them both to the group of barrels that would reveal themselves to be the entrance of the Hufflepuff common room. "See you around," was all he said before turning and disappearing back down the nearest corridor.

* * *

"So...Who was it last night?" James asked as he took a swing of the Butterbear he'd been nursing for the last few minutes.

"Huh?" Sirius tilted his head up at his friend, finally pulling his eyes from the stairs leading up to the boy's dormitory. "Oh...your talking about my bedmate? You know I never kiss and tell, Jamsie. You'll have to figure that out on your own." Swinging his legs over the side of his friend's armchair he winked over at the group of girls huddled in the corner closest to them. They tittered nervously at him while to trying to pretend that they hadn't been standing that close in hopes for a reaction from the handsome boy.

"Hmm.. Let's see.. I doubt it's a Gryffindor since it took you forever to back from walking her to her dorm. So I guess we're looking at a Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw this time. Have you seen anyone new lingering around recently, Pete?

Peter took a bite of a piece of pie he'd snuck up from dinner before glancing up at the two black-haired boys, "Was it a repeat?" he asked finally looking up at to met Sirius' eyes.

"Nope" Sirius had taken out his wand and was practicing an enchanting charm that enabled the embers of the fire roaring a few feet away from him to spring to life and quickly dip to begin a type of Waltz.

"Well then, my guess is on Clearwater, Abbott, Boot, or that annoying Edgecombe girl that kept hovering over the table during dinner. It made it really hard to eat cause I kept worrying about one of them dropping a potion in our pumpkin juice or something" he said frowning down at Sirius' dancing embers. "Can't you tell them to leave you alone meals?"

"Pffft. It's not like I tell them to _join_ me during meals, mate. But they usually get the picture when I ignore them. Unfortunately your observation's correct, you're starting to get scarily good at figuring them out. It was definitely one of those...But you did make me realize that I haven't had a Gryffindor in a while..."

"That's because there aren't many girls left in our house. Unless your gonna start preying on the third years?" James' nose wrinkled in disgust before looking over at a few quiet ones going over their Charms in the corner. "That's not something I could support, Black."

"Neither could I. But I was thinking more along the lines of something a bit more challenging. Maybe a prefect" Sirius scanned the common room before settling on someone he was sure would rouse James. "Maybe a red headed perfect." He quickly ducked as a flick of James' wand prompted his dancing ember couples to start catapulting themselves towards his head. Laughing loudly, he barely missed the next round of dancers and had to pat the right sleeve of his robes where a waltzing couple had grazed him. "Don't be so touché, I mean, what are the chances of _you_ ever getting anywhere with her anyways?"

James' ears pinked as he narrowed his eyes dangerously towards Sirius, "you act like you could have anyone you wanted."

"Certainly"

"Oh? And how certain is your 'certainly'? Would you care to make a bet?" Sirius' ears tilted towards James in a canine expression of excitement before leaning towards the lanky boy.

"What do you have in mind?" Sirius' mischievous smile was already firmly fitted onto the boys face and James needed no more indication that he had already taken an interest in the proposition.

"A bet. You bed someone of our choosing in...in...four months," James glanced over at Peter to ensure the blonde's involvement. Once the pie had completely disappeared down the larger boy's throat his face formed into a sly smile before leaning towards the circle that always formed when the boys were plotting in excitement. "And you get..." James glanced around at the common room once more before his gaze flittered out the window. What could possibly be worthy as the accolade to their wager?"

"How about the loser of the bet has to map the Shrieking Shack?" Peter suggested snapping his chubby fingers ingeniously. It had been last year when the boys had made the suggestion of creating a map of Hogwarts and the surrounding areas including the village of Hogsmead, it had been an excellent way to keep track of the many hidden rooms, corridors, and trap doors they'd found in their years within the castle. "We've almost finished the streets of Hogsmead but we don't have anything on the Shrieking Shack or it's perimeter... I'm sure there must be something exciting there for all the locals to shy away."

James bite his bottom lip and glanced at the table in the middle of the circle once more before looking up to find Lily Evans sitting alone with a pile of books by her feet. This seemed to strengthen his resolve and he nodded firmly saying, "sounds like a plan. I can see how having a whole empty house might come in useful. Anything we can't store in here or potions that can't be brewed in the castle can be brewed there."

Sirius nodded quickly before grinning and whispered, "now... who's the lucky target?" James and Peter looked at each other once again before turning towards the roaring fire racking their brains for someone with a shred of decency to stand up against Sirius' advances.

"Well... Evans really does hate him, I mean-" Peter's words were lost in the whimper that left his throat at the murderous look James shot him. "Nevermind" he mumbled in the base of collar as he avoided the boy's eyes. Sirius was about to comment on the particularly pathetic sound that James had managed to elicit from their occassionally spineless companion when movement from the stairs of the boy's dormitory halted the words that had formed in the boy's mind. A slim figure descended from the stairs with a few books in his arms, he flicked his head slightly to move the long pieces of light brown hair that often fell in his face in the most inopportune times. It took the fifth year all of five seconds to quickly scan the common room before walking over to seat with his fellow prefect, Lily Evans.

Peter silently watched Sirius indulge in his fascination of their fellow year-mate before coming to a silent decision, "so, your absolutely confident that you can bed anyone we choose?" Sirius glanced back to the slightly chubby boy before the first signs of doubt flickered across his aristocrat face.

"Well..."

"What if we pick a Gryffindor, and in exchange you can't refuse our choice." James glanced over to Peter in surprise before frowning as he voiced his concerns.

" I dunno Pete, Sirius really has gone through almost all the Gryffindors, that are of acceptable age that is, I'm not supporting some perverted choice either," James shook his head defiantly almost as if he was thinking about the possibility personally of bedding a younger student. He almost missed the deliberate look Peter shot him before the chubby boy continued with his plan.

"Of course not, that's just wrong. But Sirius what do you say? Our choice of a Gryffindor who's of age. No refusals," Peter grinned slyly maintaining eye contact with the taller boy. Sirius' mischievous look reappeared more ingrained than before and he confidently lounged back into his chair before smirking up at them.

"I'm in. Gimme a name," he threw his arm around his head closing his eyes as if he'd already decided that this bet didn't hold the challenge required to ensure that he stayed awake for the duration of the conversation.

"Remus Lupin" Peter breathed out triumphantly. James' eyes shot up to Peter before finally landing on the quiet, reserved boy who, despite being in their year, was almost a complete mystery to them. While Lupin's polite smile and humble voice couldn't be described as unfriendly, the calculated approach he took to deflecting personal questions and diverting conversations that could help unravel the enigma that he presented had frustrated the group of friends in their first few years of school. There had once been a time when the boys had delighted in following their dorm-mate and springing up on him with the intent of shifting the reserved mask the boy seemed to wear but with discovery of Hogsmead, the lure of discovering the secrets of the castle, and the temptation to dive into mischief their silent dorm-mate had been left up to his own devices. Until now.

Sirius' eyes snapped open before staring over at the pale brown haired prefect who was now flipping through one of the books he'd been carrying to show Evans something he found interesting. James grinned devilishly seizing the opportunity to punish Sirius for teasing him about his crush earlier. "Excellent choice, Pete!" he said laughing loudly as he reached over and clapped Peter on the back. "Sirius, you've experimented before, right? I've never seen Lupin dating a girl and we're in our fifth year now. Do you know if he's a pounce?" James titled his head while staring at Lupin as if he could discern the boy's sexual orientation by viewing him horizontally.

"The only person I've ever seen him spend private time with outside of his study group is Justin Macdonald that sixth year Hufflepuff. Macdonald is definitely a pouf so if they were spending time together..." Peter trailed off. "But is it settled? Remus Lupin in four months. That should give you plenty of time."

Sirius tore his eyes away from Lupin before glancing at his smirking friends one last time. Putting on his best face of lazy confidence he reached out and gripped both Peter's and James' hand saying, "Yeah. It's a deal."


	2. Chapter 2: A Friendship is Born

**Disclaimer:** Completely forgot to include this in my first chapter BUT as much as we'd all hoped I am not J.K. Rowling. While I am still in counselling to overcome this issue the facts remain that Harry Potter and the wonderful characters and themes associated with the franchise are not my intellectual property. It really is a pity though.

Also, I've seen this theme (i.e. of a bet) done within the fanfiction community before but I've never seen a completed version so hopefully mine will still interest some.

* * *

**Chapter Two: A Friendship is Born**

* * *

Remus blinked down at the piece of parchment he had been hunched over in an effort to take decent notes on the Troll Battle of 1581 and that one off month in 1592. For some reason, despite the fact that he'd been gripping his quill intently and straining to comprehend the monotone droll of the decrepit History Professor Binns, Remus hadn't been successful in collecting the main points of the lecture. After another half-hearted attempt at jotting down the heroics of Tendvour the Terrifying he finally admitted defeat and glanced out the window. Noting the calm glare of the sunlight which indicated the rapid approach of winter, Remus couldn't help but think... seven days. It was seven more days until his next transformation. While Remus had grown accustomed to shrinking into the darkness of the Shrieking Shack to bear the blunt of his transformation he always hated the suspense that leaving the castle brought him. Despite the many years of his journey, he couldn't help but think that one day he would return to his room to find his dormmates staring at him horror having finally discovered his secret and knowing that for the past four years they'd shared rooms with a monster.

A small bony elbow attacked one of his lower ribs and Remus unconsciously let out a low growl before turning to glare at Belby. Davis Belby was a fifth year Hufflepuff and Remus generally enjoyed sitting next to him because as kind as he was, he was also extremely scared of failing any classes and sat through entire lessons without attempting to strike up whispered conversation. Davis caught his eye before gesturing to Professor Binns who had stopped his lecture to swivel his ancient body towards Remus, Remus briefly wondered how long the small movement had taken the ancient wizard grinned in amusement before responding. "I'm sorry, sir?"

"Would you please collect the 12 inch essays that were assigned last class? Thank you Mr. Lupin," he replied in his slow rhythmic speech.

"Of course, sir." Remus sprung up delighted for the excuse to move his legs and take his mind off of his upcoming transformation, he'd be living through the pain of it all soon enough there was no reason to make himself miserable beforehand as well. Nearing the back of the class where his dormmates usually sat, he was annoyed to find that they hadn't bothered to put their essays on their desk before falling asleep. Frowning, he gently nudged Sirius Black and watched in amusement as the boy's black locks flew out of his face as his head jerked upwards.

"Mhmm...Wha's that?" he mumbled frantically swinging around wildly before his eyes finally landed on Remus standing beside him. "Oh, sorry. Were you saying something?"

Remus' breath caught in his throat as the boy's startling grey eyes bore into him, momentarily wiping his task from his mind. Breaking eye contact Remus focused on a rebellious piece of hair that had escaped from its position at the back of Black's left ear. Lifting up the pile of parchments he'd collected so far he quietly breathed out, "Essays."

"Oh. Yeah. Sorry," Black shot him a crocked smile before reaching down to grab his book bag off the floor swinging it round to hit James Potter on the head before it landed on his desk. Potter started awake and after blinking owlishly around seemed to deduce Remus' presence at his table and wordlessly flung his essay into the boy's outstretched hand.

"Here. Thanks, Remus," Black said smiling up at him before settling back into the seemingly comfortable nook of his folded arms. Remus hesitated slightly looking  
down at the boy's shining grey eyes from his rested position before quickly moving on. Since when where him and Sirius Black on a first name basis?

* * *

By the time dinner arrived Remus had seriously considered sneaking a few bites of the Niffler treats that he had been instructed to use to persuade the creature to find buried gold. It was of no surprise that the moment that the food appeared on top of the Gryffindor table Remus had already began his dinner habits.

When he'd first come to Hogwarts he had been wary of eating in front of others at all, this was mainly out of fear of the painful reaction to the silver that lined the serving platters that the food appeared on. He'd learned very quickly that continuously reaching over the heated silver platters for food had caused him to become nauseous and instead had taken to gathering two or three plates and filing them with everything he thought he might need at the start of his meals. He was in the process of shoveling the sweet potatoes off his first plate down in his throat when he felt a familiar presence behind him.

"Alright there, bugger?" came a steady male voice from the area of his right ear before a warmly tanned hand snaked over his shoulder to grab a few potatoes.

"What'd you have today? You look like you could eat a thestral." The boy threw his head back causing his dark blonde hair which had been secured in a ponytail to fly hazardously towards the pitcher of pumpkin juice. Remus frowned wondering how he never seemed conscious of his actions, while it wasn't terribly uncommon for a member of a different house to sit at a different table, his brother had sprawled out comfortably beside him easily taking up the space where two if not three Gryffindor's could be sitting.

"Romulus! Must you? You know dishing out my own food is my least favorite part of a meal," said Remus staring at the gap where three of his sweet potatoes had been before shaking his head and throwing the rest of them down his throat.

"Not like you'll miss it really" came his brother's calm reply as he loosened his delicately stripped blue and bronze tie."Are you patrolling tonight?"

Remus bit his bottom lip and avoided the question by picking up a piece of peppered chicken from his second plate. "Remie..." his brother twisted his face until his electric blue eyes were only a short distance from Remus' amber.

"Yes, I'm patrolling the dungeons tonight but I'll be with Lily Evans so I'll be fine" although Remus appreciated the way his older brother cared for him, his constant hovering was at times annoying. "And no. Don't you dare think of following me this time. How am I ever suppose to be a proper prefect if you keep stalking me?"

"Stalking," the attractive boy huffed, "isn't that a bit much? I was hungry and on my way to the kitchens when I happened across you the last time. Really Remie, it's nothing to tie your knickers in a knot over." He swung round to sit at the table like a normal student and surveyed the people around him, "that Evans is really cute though" he commented offhanded as he grabbed a stuffed baked potato.

"Better not let Amlise catch you saying that" Remus muttered turning as if he expected to see a sway of thick, black hair which signaled the arrival of his brother's kind and but temperamental girlfriend. Romulus colored slightly before casting a nervous glance around seemingly satisfied when he caught her eating with two girls at the Ravenclaw table.

"Don't be silly. Remie, we're both extremely secure in our relationship. Acknowledging attractive prefects don't matter to us." As if she could sense the direction of their conversation Amlise turned swiftly and locked eyes with Romulus scowling at him slightly before turning away with a huff.

"No way she heard that..." Romulus frowned before taking a swing of Remus' pumpkin juice and standing up, "Sometimes I swear that girl is part wolf, she has one of the craziest sense of hearing I've ever seen." Winking playfully at his brother he reached over to dump a stuffed baked potato into his third plate before refilling his pumpkin juice, "Be careful tonight, Remie" was all he said as he walked towards his table.

After devouring the remains of his third plate Remus started looking around for Lily but was instead distracted by the awkward flailing of Potter's arm as he recounted a heroic (judging by the look on Pettigrew's face) story to his friends.

Sighing silently, Remus wondered not for the first time if he had been right in his goal to distance himself from his dormmates. Sure, they frequently got into trouble by pulling the most outrageous pranks, the memory of the singing pumpkins that had climbed atop the Slytherin table during the Halloween dinner resonated clearly in his mind, but despite their clever antics the boys seemed harmless enough.

Just as Remus started admiring the way Black's hair flew back in small jerks every time he let loose his signature bark-like laughter the boy in question turned and looked directly at him. Remus blinked before slipping his eyes away from the silver eyed boy's and continuing on their journey to find Lily. Walking out the Great Hall after he had signaled to her that he'd meet her in the common room Remus was fairly certain that the burning he felt on the back of his neck were those silver eyes still on him.

* * *

Remus tensed his back before turning around and glaring at the cold stone walls illuminated by the pale light of frequent torches but saw nothing else. This had been the umpteenth time this had happened and no matter how many times he told himself that the only people who would be wondering around the dungeons this late were himself, his prefect partner Lily, and possibly a few Slytherin students out of bed, he was sure he felt someone watching him.

"Are you okay, Remus?" Lily asked stopped to peer at him through the darkness.

"Yeah, sorry. Just thought I heard something," Remus gave her a tentative smile before moving to catch up to her.

"But to be honest, I'm not sure why anyone would bother trying to spend more times down here in the dungeons." He smiled weakly and looked down at her hoping that she didn't think him a coward for finding the cold, hallow corridors of the dungeons uninviting. To his relief she nodded and spared a few glances down darkened hallways as they passed.

"I know what you mean, I hate it down here. Especially in the winter, It's just always so cold do you know how annoying it is having to layer up for just Potions?" she scowled shooting the stone walls a disapproving look.

Remus smiled at her antics, he hadn't realized it before he and Lily had been named prefects of their year but the girl was actually pleasant to be around. She had a sort of maturity that Remus rarely saw in anyone his own age, she was also extremely studious and had invited him to join a study room that she'd recently formed. Remus smiled when he thought of the study group, it really was the ideal type of friendship that he needed. He got to be around kindly people who would smile and wave at him in the halls, but seldom diverted conversation away from the various subjects and assignments that they were meant to be tackling.

Glancing back down at her scowling expression he was once again reminded of another important reason why he felt so comfortable around her, she reminded him a great deal of Amlise. Romulus' girlfriend was an extremely temperamental witch and while she had been nothing but kind to him for the week she had spent at the Lupin cottage that summer, she had single-handedly thrown Romulus into the stream that flowed near their house. Even as Remus had knelt down in an attempt to fish his stuttering brother from the water, she'd glared down at him angrily as if daring Romulus to remerge from the water without first pacifying her.

Remus was jerked from his wondering thoughts of warm, summer days when he heard the sound of footsteps. There was no way he could've imagined that, not this time. He said nothing but looked down at Lily who, evident by the way her brows furrowed in concentration, had heard the noise too.

Lifting her finger to her lips in a request of silence Lily crept down the corridor turning to peer down the darkness of the closest corridor to investigate. Just as Remus had walked to stand by her a slim figure darted out of the shadows and threw a hastily aimed curse at the both of them before running off down the opposite direction.

Checking to ensure that Lily was alright Remus nodded at her and together they took off after the student who was going clearly desperate to avoid being caught past curfew.

Coming to a fork in the corridors Remus strained his eyes to try and discern the path that there perpetrator had taken. "Can't see anything," he mumbled in an annoyed voice.

"Neither can I. Maybe we should split up? I don't hear anything so he must be hiding around here somewhere," Lily said taking out her wand and edging down the corridor towards his left.

"Right. Let's meet back here in a few minutes then." Remus took off down the corridor closest to his right, his wand out and his mind blissfully calm. This felt great. Here he was creeping down corridors in the dark of the night, his friend supporting him, and him gaining on the trail of his prey.

Here the boy stopped to glare around him smirking, this must be how it would've felt if he'd ever gotten the opportunity to hunt as a wolf. His muscles would be tense with adrenaline, his senses sharp and waiting, every part of him down to the minuscule hair on the back of his neck attentive.

There. Remus' eyes flickered to an alcove in a dark corner up ahead. He could've sworn that he'd seen a brief flicker of movement maybe the glint of a wand being raised or the glimmer of pale eyes glaring at him in the dark.

Before he could respond to what he innately knew to be a threat another hastily aimed curse flew at him. Having obsessively studied Defense Against the Dark Arts and watched every demonstration of a duel that was possible Remus didn't think twice before ducking and rolling out of the reach he assumed the curse had.

Once he'd come out from his roll wand pointed at the area his attacker had been he realized a moment too late that his attacker had moved. Three more curses fired at him and Remus felt the air shift violently around his left ear as he narrowly missed a jinx.

Mumbling inaudibly at this time, he held his wand steady as he fired multiple curses. With a loud cry his attacker slipped on their side and fell roughly to the ground with a loud crash. Forgetting himself, Remus lowered his wand and rushed forward to ensure the student's safety.

"Oi! You alright?" was all Remus had managed to get out before a resounding crack and an impacting pressure alerted Remus that his prone opponent had decided to continue their duel. Falling to the ground almost soundlessly Remus was surprised when a foreign ache began spreading slowly over his body, creeping to dominate his senses.

Somewhere in the background of this pain Remus became aware of the sensation of having lost his voice. Knowing immediately that a silencing charm had been casted Remus knew he should feel terrified as his attacker approached his fallen body but could only track the slow progression of pain through his body.

A sharp pain to the left side of his hip bone brought him sharply back to reality as he rolled over in an attempt to dull the horrible new ache running through his hip. Squinting to try and make out the face of his attacker Remus was shocked as the person's body flew violently in the air before crashing a few feet away with a dull thump.

A dark haired figure - or was it two? Rushed by him and Remus was aware of lights - curses flying in the air before a blindingly white light halted all action.

When Remus had blinked again the figure with sleek black hair and startling grey eyes - Sirius Black- was leaning next to him mumbling countercurses under his breathe while swiping his wand in short flicking motions across the length of his body.

Coughing, he became aware that the Silencing charm had been lifted and locked eyes with Black for the third time that day. "Uhmm... Thanks Black," was all Remus could mutter as he was helped in a gingerly sitting position by the taller boy.

Sirius Black smiled widely and threw his head back in a fit full of laughter. "Really? Black? That's what I get for dueling that nutter who was attacking you?" he asked in a good natured kind of way.

Remus was saved from immediately responding when he heard the irritated voice of Lily Evans reprimanding another dark-haired figure, who by Black' presence could only be James Potter.

"Honestly, I don't know how you two always manage to be around when there's trouble. I really should give you both detentions for breaking curfews," Lily shrieked angrily as she neared where Sirius and Remus where standing."Oh Remus! Are you okay? We should've have split up after all" Lily cried fitfully while clinging on to Remus' dirtied robes.

Smiling against the scent of her vanilla scented hair Remus tapped the small of her back awkwardly. "I'm fine Lily. Blac- Uhm... Sirius came along before anything serious could happen." Once Lily had released him and demanded that they escort the two wayward Gryffindors back to the common room in case they 'got lost again' Remus found himself walking next to a somber Black.

"You are alright, right? The hexes that guy was throwing was something serious," Sirius said while swipping his eyes over Remus' body one last time.

For some unknown reason he felt a strange heat pool in his stomach. "Yeah, I'm fine. Thanks... Sirius."

At this the black haired boy smiled brushing slightly against his shoulder in a friendly gesture before replying, "No problem. We've been dormmates long enough. Probably bout time we make friends anyways, right?"

Remus couldn't help but smile at other the boy's carefree attitude. "Friends, huh? Guess we should probably give that a try."


	3. Chapter 3: A Different Side of Wet

**Disclaimer: **As I sincerely regret to inform you once again, I am not J. K. Rowling. The wonderful characters and theme associated with the Harry Potter franchise are not my intellectual property. Although my therapist does enjoy going over the reasons why I believe they should be mine, he think it helps me "come to terms with reality." We'll see.

Also, sorry for not updating in what seems like forever. I had a break from studying for exams, and writing final papers and decided to try and put out a new chapter. This one is twice as long as usual so hopefully it makes up for my abrupt hiatus.

AND, lemme know if you like my writing style. I just realize how much dialogue there is. Hope you don't find it slow or anything.

Last one, I promise. I was checking Harry Potter wiki and just realized that Remus Lupin's eyes are green. I didn't realize that because in most fanfictions I read his eyes are amber which seem to suit him. With further fanfiction I'll probably make his eyes green to coincide with what Rowling had in mind, but I'm not changing it for this story. I've already written it in, I'm not going back now.

*** Felix Folium: Lation translation is Happy Leaf. I couldn't find reference to there being an illegal substance at Hogwarts comparable to marijuana so I look the liberty of inserting my own. Enjoy!

* * *

**Chapter Three: A Different side of Wet**

* * *

Sirius descended from the floor of his dorm two at a time, his feet barely brushing the ground as he walked with a noticeable bounce in his usual lazy morning stride. Glancing around the common room discreetly under the pretense of waiting for James and Peter to make it to the portrait Sirius couldn't help but grumble slightly, Remus wasn't there.

He'd tried to wake up as early as possible, knowing that Remus regularly woke up and showered long before any of his other dorm-mates got to mutter their first complaints about the 'ungodly time of breakfast.' Despite knowing this, Sirius had held out hope that after yesterday maybe the prefect would be more willing to lounge around the room for a few extra minutes, if only to say 'good morning' to his hero.

"Can't believe we couldn't get the Felix Folium last night," James huffed his voice dripping with annoyance.

"Stupid Blott too, trust him to get cornered by the prefects," Peter paused at this before glancing around ensuring that no one else was waiting for the stairs to finish moving before continuing, "I just can't believe he had the nerve to attack them. It sounds like he really would've hurt Lupin."

Sirius exhaled roughly, "Stupid Slytherin, he is. You'd think that dealing at the school would've made him more aware of the prefect schedule. I bet he didn't even cast a silencing charm on his feet to block out his footprints. Idiot. & what's worst is when we got there he was hexing up a storm." Sirius was more than a little annoyed at the Slytherin's violent outburst, he didn't even want to think what could've happened had he and James not chosen to follow their prefect counterparts through their descend to the dungeons.

"You're right. Though I doubt he'll be dealing to us anytime soon. He's probably still annoyed that you cursed him, " James grinned reaching over to grab a piece of bacon off the closest platter as they made their way to their usual seat.

"I had to. You'd seen him. He could've killed Lupin. Wait James." James paused in front of the usual space that the three friends occupied during meals before trying to locate what had captured Sirius' attention.

"What Black? I'm hungry. Damnit," he bite out annoyed at being kept from his meal.

"Let's seat over there today." Sirius gestured to where Lupin sat happily shoving hash browns from one of the two plates in front of him while holding out a Transfiguration book.

"What? Now? Can't you find some other time to try and woo the pounce?" James was normally extremely temperamental in the morning so Sirius let the comment wash off his back, the only indication that he'd even heard it was a single-finger gesture in James' direction.

"You always have this kind of appetite?" Sirius asked as he took a seat adjacent to the tawny haired boy. He counted three boiled eggs, two bowls of fruits, soldiers, pancakes, and hash browns all on either one of his two plates.

"I've got Double Transfiguration first thing today. I'm gonna need all the strength I can get," Remus' soft voice floating over the cover of his book.

"He's got a point. McGonagall looks like she's ready to bury us under work this year. All in the name of preparing us for our O.W.L.'s " Peter grumbled pouring an unhealthy about of syrup on his pancakes.

"Don't know how much good it'll do us really though. What's gonna happen when we collapse of sleep deprivation during the O.W.L.'s? Bet she'll wish she hadn't pushed us so hard then." James moodily stabbing his hash browns with his fork as if they regularly collaborated with McGonagall in the assigning of homework.

"They'll spell you back to consciousness, give you a piece of toast, and sit you back down to keep writing your exams," Remus murmured laying his book on the table for better access to the pitcher of pumpkin juice.

"How'd you know?" James asked if not a bit irritably.

"Happened last year. To this sad little Hufflepuff during the Potions theoretical exam" Remus looked just to the left of James' unruly head of hair.

"Sucks. That'll probably be me this year," Peter looked worried over the pile of pancakes he was devouring. Sirius couldn't help but agree with the pudgy boy, if such a thing was likely to happen to any of them, it would most definitely be Peter.

"You'll be fine," came Remus' soft voice consoling the boy, "as long as you study hard now and keep on top of things you'll get plenty of O's." Sirius couldn't hold in a snort.

"O's? You'll be lucky to pull some A's. Don't get ahead of yourself," Sirius said successfully pulling James' out of his morning slump when the bespectacled boy laughed loudly. Peter ducked, staring intensely at his pancakes the tip of his pink ears displaying the embarrassment he refused to show.

"Instead of taking a piss at him, how about you actually help him?" Remus frowned at Sirius in obvious displeasure before turning to Peter, "I have a study group I meet up with a few times a week, you're welcomed to join us. And even if you don't want to do the whole group thing, we could always do homework today in the common room."

Peter looked hesitantly at the boy as if wondering if he wasn't starting some elaborate ploy to take further aim at his intelligence, deciding that the brown haired boy seemed sincere enough, he consented, "Yeah, actually. That sounds great, I'll catch you round in the common room then."

"What? How comes you won't offer me any help?" Sirius pouted at the strands of light brown hair that covered Remus' eyes as he focused on the contents of his second plate.

"You? I don't think I've seen you in the library in my whole life," Remus replied cheekily.

"Must not get in the Restricted section too often then." James laughed as he made to gather his things from the table.

"What's that?" Remus asked looking directly at the boy for the first time that morning.

"Restricted section," Sirius answered quickly drawing Remus' attention back his way.

"Restricted? Better not get caught there. If you think Madam Pince is scary now, you should see when she's actually upset," Remus warned.

"Caught? Us? Don't kid." James stood stretching exaggeratedly before gesturing to Sirius and Peter. "Let's go. There's still time for a fag before Transfiguration."

Peter, who didn't smoke, was so eager in his haste to join James' slow stroll down the Gryffindor table that he fumbled with the glass of pumpkin juice that he'd been drinking and managed to dribble it down his shirt. Fortunately, it didn't seem that the discomfort of a wet shirt could cripple his excitement as he went scurrying after James. "See you Lupin" he called back as an after thought.

Rolling his eyes at the boy's almost nauseating display of blind devotion to his friend Sirius stood and lazily slumped his bag over his shoulder glancing down at Remus. "Save us a seat in Transfiguration. Just in case we don't make the bell."

A pair of soft amber eyes flashed up to him before the boy carefully replied, "You sure your friends won't mind sitting up front where McGonagall can actually see them?"

"The front? C'mon... It's too early for that look she's always giving me. You know the one. Where her lip disappears and she looks like she's contemplating if she get away with Transfiguring me into a fish and feeding me to the Great Squid."

A slow smile stretched across Remus' face. He had indeed witnessed the look Sirius was referring to and frankly, he was of the opinion that McGonagall had already formulated the plan to do away with his body and was just now bidding her time."Fine. I'll save you something in the middle."

Sirius grinned down stupidly at him for a minute almost admiring the way the smaller boy looked as he threw his head back to devour his soldiers his pale, ivory neck standing out sharply in the early morning light. Coughing awkwardly, he dragged his eyes away from the other boy and nodded his head in a strange jerking movement before muttering his goodbyes and hurried away from the head of shinning brown hair.

* * *

"Where's Pete?" Sirius asked trying to get a good look behind the armchair that James had boldly declared to the rest of the common room belonged to him, as if the chubby boy was hidden behind it.

Following the path of his friend's eyes James laughed before replying, "Library. Reckon he went to take Lupin up on his offer to tutor him or something."

Sirius hummed in a noncommittal kind of way before desperately gripping onto anything that would take the conversation off of their tawny haired roommate. For the past week they'd sat with him at meals and he'd politely, if not slightly reluctantly, saved them seats in the middle of their classes while the boys lounged outside to indulge in Sirius' and James' most recent streak of rebellion.

James was not having any of it and quickly dove on the subject of Remus, happy to have the opportunity of the boy's absence to tear into him. "Ugh. He's so annoying. I don't think I've ever met anyone wetter in my life."

"Evans' pretty wet." Sirius responded lightly hoping that by comparing the two it would soften James' mood on the smaller boy. While Peter had taken an almost immediate liking to Remus, although even Sirius had to admit that he treated him far better than his two friends of five years, James had determinedly taken the opposite stand. He missed no chance to sneer openly at anything that Remus said that could be considered remotely 'wet', even laughing cruelly when Peter had tried to point out that Remus was more inclined to follow the rules cause he was a prefect.

"Evans can be as wet as she wants, at least she's hot." James eyes had fallen to the red headed prefect chatting amiably with a few fourth year girls on the sofa located in a small corner of the room.

Sirius bit his bottom lip not fancying the argument that would ensue if he mentioned that Remus himself was also quite attractive. Obviously not in the soft, pleasant way that Lily's fiery red hair and green eyes inspired. But in his own boyish way. Remus' ivory skin always seemed slightly translucent and although Sirius had often found a similar color on terrifically ill people, coupled with Remus' soft brown, almost rich, golden hair that fell lightly across his face, he was unable to find the color attractive.

"Maybe if he got out more in the sun,he wouldn't look so ill all the time." James seemed to almost read his mind as he launched back into his assault on Remus' character with renewed vigor. "I almost feel sorry for you, mate. Having to actually spend time with that git."

Sirius sat stiffly, as if hoping that if he stopped moving he could fade completely from James' vision and silence the boy's tirade that made his stomach churn in an unpleasant way.

"Well... It is winter" he managed to get out after a long stretch of silence that, by James' persistent eyes on him seemed to indicate that the boy could still see him and was waiting for his continued participation in their conversation.

The bespectacled boy pulled an almost unattractive face before drawing breathe to continue.

"Hey Peter!" Sirius cried in an unusual show of excitement.

The small, round boy halted his journey over to his two friends trying to guess the crude, and most likely humiliating prank that the two had waiting for him. While it didn't often happen that his two friends would turn their brand of mischief on him, he could never be too certain what the two of them would do once they locked in the common room and deemed it too risky to sneak out with the help of the Invisibility cloak.

"Where'd you think your going?" Sirius made to grab the collar of the boy's robes as he tried to retreat up the stairs. "We're over here."

"Of course" Peter fidgeted slightly but allowed the taller boy to steer him over to where James was lounging in his armchair and fell bodily into the sofa adjacent.

"Lupin manage to get anything through to you?" James asked casually eyeing the heavy book bag that Peter had laid on the table in front of them.

"Yeah, the study group was actually pretty helpful, they even- "

"Where is he anyways?" Sirius interrupted Peter's excited chatter while swiping the common room for a sign of the boy in question.

"Huh? Oh - Think he was talking to McDonald when I left. Told me he'd be up soon though." Peter produced a chocolate frog and having to dodge James' hand as he made to grab for it, popped the entire body of the squirming frog into his mouth.

"Well, that's just like him. Wanting to spend more time in the library... I'll be back," Sirius stood indulging in a magnificent stretch.

"Sure go. Wouldn't want someone _else_ beating you to that pouf," James sneered in an almost malicious way before turning his attention to capturing the rest of the snacks that Peter had began to produce.

Once again choosing silence in way of a reply, Sirius grunted a goodbye and bounded through the portrait hole before he was subjected to listening to anymore of James' attacks on his new 'friend.'

Making his way down the corridor to the library, he was surprised when on the third floor he glimpsed a head of light brown hair laid against ivory skin- Remus?

Shrinking skillfully against the shadows thrown on the walls, he inched closer to what he realized where two people talking, his initial guess had been right it was Remus and - was that McDonald?

Justin's impressively tall figure was slumped casually against the wall leaning slightly to tower over Remus in a way that made Sirius experience a violent burst of anger that had him searching his mental archives for a number of spells that would send Justin's body flying painfully away from Remus'.

Just then McDonald laughed at something Remus said - Sirius couldn't remember Remus ever sharing a particularly amusing joke with him- his silver, blonde hair flying out of his face.

Sirius wasn't sure why he was so angry but he was almost sure it had something to do with the way the undeniably attractive boy brushed against Remus' shoulder while continuing their conversation.

Scowling he titled his head slightly as he continued to observe the boy from the safety of the shadows, trying, searching almost desperately for some unattractive flaw he could casually point out to Remus at a later date.

Justin's hair had an annoyingly wet blanket, boring cut Sirius began. The back of his hair laid neatly down in layers stopping before it could be considered unruly while the front of it fell in orderly light blonde waves that framed either side of his angular face. His pale face, though not nearly the ivory that Remus had managed to achieve, was flushed with color as he leaned purposively over to Remus his voice growing quieter the longer the conversation continued.

Further annoyed by how his ploy had the effect of forcing Remus to tilt his face upwards in an effort to catch all of what the boy was saying Sirius decided to make his appearance known.

"Remus! There you are!" Sirius smiled widely at the look of annoyance that instantly washed over McDonald's face as Remus turned his attention his approaching figure.

"Sirius? What's up?" Remus pushed himself from the wall and took a few steps towards him turning his back almost completely on McDonald.

"Was worried about you, that's what. Didn't know what to think when Peter had come back to the common room alone." Sirius pouted in a playful way before slinging his arm casually around Remus' shoulder trying to create the appearance that this was something he did on a daily basis.

"Really?" Remus' voice had an amused edged to it that Sirius was just learning to look forward to, "Well, what do you think would've happened? I miss the stairs as they were changing?"

"And fall to your death?" Sirius finished effortlessly, "It had crossed my mind. You saw the way that Peter tripped down a flight of stairs earlier. It's dangerous."

"Tripped? Are you referring when James cast that Limp Leg charm and Peter almost fell to his death?" Despite his obligatory disapproving frown there was a light in Remus' eyes that had not been there prior and Sirius could have sworn that it looked suspiciously similar to the glint that danced wildly behind James' glasses every time he thought of a delightfully complicated prank.

"Potato, potatoe." Sirius dismissed the distinction of the cause of Peter's accident with a wave of his hand.

A loud snort alerted the two boys to the presence of McDonald who looked slightly annoyed at being ignored in the conversation that he had initiated with Remus.

"Remus is fine, we were just talking." His deep voice sounded and he looked Sirius directly in the eye with the air of an animal trying to defend its dinner.

"So I see." An awkward silence descended over the small group as Sirius held McDonald's gaze annoyed with the realization that he stood at eye level with him, making the silver-blonde haired boy around 6ft.

Clearing his throat Remus reached down to grab his discarded bag from the floor, "Well, it's getting late. We don't wanna miss curfew. I'll see you tomorrow Justin?" He turned to McDonald who broke eye contact with Sirius to reply to Remus.

"Yup. Same place. Bring your next Potions assignment, I can go over it with you after the group leaves." McDonald reached down and squeezed Remus' shoulder before swinging his bag over his own and nodding at Sirius. "Later, Black," He said before turning in the direction of the stairs that would take him on his descent to his common room.

"C'mon." Sirius grabbed the sleeve of Remus' robe tugging him slightly as he gestured in the direction of the library, "I've got something I need to pick up."

"What?" Checking his watch Remus frowned up at his new friend, "Sirius, it's already past 8 the library is closed."

"Really?" He reached down to snatch Remus' arm turning the face of his watch so he could check the surface. "Brilliant."

Remus huffed in an indignant sort of way before peering at the doors of the obviously closed library. "What's so important in there that we're breaking into the library? Why can't you get it tomorrow?"

"During the day?" A look of poorly veiled horror flittered across Sirius faced before he shook his head deciding that plan couldn't possibly work out, "Doubt I'll get in the Restricted Section with Pince sulking around with that damn feather duster. Wouldn't even put it past her to charm it to suffocate me." He mumbled darkly as he took out his wand and after giving a few quick looks around him mumbled an obviously well practiced Silencing Charm on both their shoes and the library door.

"C'mon." Sirius mumbled to Remus before pushing open the silent door and padding into darkness of the library. Remus appeared only a few short seconds afterwards and it was apparent by the way that his eyes had narrowed to look around the library that he was at least slightly apprehensive about their nightly stroll.

"Well? What're you waiting for?" He mumbled in an impatient way poking the soft spot between Sirius' third and fourth rib before he plunged into the shadows that the library aisles provided.

Sirius gaped in silent fascination as he somehow ended up behind Remus as the boy expertly weaved his way through the aisle, stopping at times if a sound made its way to both the boys and ensuring that they didn't run into the badly tempered librarian.

Sirius had to admit he was impressed at the smaller boy's tactics and was instantly glad for satisfying his most recent urge of delinquency with the supposedly 'wet-blanket' prefect. A small wave of fear had descended upon him as he'd closed the library doors, this was after all, one of the only times that he'd dared to sneak into the sovereignty of the vulture-like witch that was Madam Pince. All fears vanished as they stepped over the rope that separated the Restricted Section from the common area of the library.

"Where's the book?" Remus whispered as he peered at the number of books that seemed to be staring back ominously.

"Gimme a minute," Sirius muttered back as his eyes swiped the rows of books for the one that he wanted. He and James had been looking up a particularly delightful impish potion when they'd been dismayed to discover that the Potions book they'd borrowed from one of the Prewetts had no further information on it, only listing it as 'volatile and disruptive if placed in the wrong hands' something that had made both boys almost twitch with excitement at the protest of brewing some.

"Here it is. Moste Potente Potions." Sirius breathed happily as he reached to claim the soils of his dangerous trek through enemy grounds. Before he could so much as touch the spine of the book Remus' hand snaked over to grab him by his wrist.

"Are you crazy?!" the brown haired boy hissed shooting him a reproachful look.

"What's wrong? That's the book we're here for." Sirius frowned down at him wondering, as his stomach churned, if James' assumption of the boy was right and that he was indeed prudish and unable to have fun.

Remus only shook his head as he released Sirius, holding up a digit he signaled that he should give him a moment and dove into his book bag searching for something within its depths.

Pulling out an ordinary looking book "Borrowed it from the library last week" was Remus' explanation the boy pulled out his wand and stared intensely at the spine of Moste Potente Potions for a long while.

Sirius shifted restlessly glancing around, he wasn't sure what the smaller boy was doing but he knew that longer they stayed in the library unnecessarily, the better their chances were of earning lengthy detentions for their attempt at burglarizing Pince's stash of books.

Finally a flicker of movement from Remus' wand brought his attention back to the smaller boys' actions. His wand had done a sharp, flickering motion and he had began to mumble in a quick and determined way his brow furrowed in concentration as he continued to stare intently at the spine of the book.

Sirius watched as a film of color seemed to slip from the spine of the book they desired and was guided by Remus' wand to the spine of the book in his hand, creating an indistinguishable copy.

"Brilliant!" Sirius breathed as he stared down at the copy only just realizing that if he'd taken the book for an undetermined time there was always the chance of Pince walking by and noticing the gap between her perfectly arranged book. Reaching to grab the book from the shelve once more he released a disgruntled noise when Remus once again stopped him.

"This is a high class Potions book, idiot. It's guarded" came Remus' explanation as he swiped his wand over the surface of the book a few times.

Knowing his own fair share of detection spells Sirius whipped out his wand to assist the boy in finding the correct spell to pry the book from it's carefully arranged home. So concentrated were both the boys that they visibly jumped when they heard the sound of the door close and footsteps walking briskly through the aisles.

"Shit." Sirius muttered as he tried to peer through the spaces made available in the column of books. "It's Pince. She's probably hear to tuck her damn book in to sleep or something."

"Distract her." Remus mumbled before starting a long, difficult spell that was accompanied with stiff looking clockwise and counterclockwise swirls.

Sirius gawked at him shock, where was the prefect that had been tutoring Peter not even an hour ago, and how could he possibly have missed when he'd been replaced by this mischievous boy who seemed intently commited on looting a book filled to the brim with dangerous potions.

"Your off your rocker. Fine. Try not to get caught." After a moment of deliberation and a flicker of his wand to ensure that the book had no protection spell, he lifted a slightly tattered, grey book off a nearby shelf before climbing over the rope.

Creaking down the aisle to the opposite section of the library that Remus stood, Sirius had to both press himself fully against the shelf and silently drop to the ground to avoid detection from the wandering light of Pince's wand. He could only thank Merlin that the Silencing Charm that he'd caught on his shoes was still active, though he couldn't help but wish for the safety of James' invisibility cloak.

Reaching his destination, Sirius laid the book carefully on the floor before muttering a few spells and began creeping towards the front of the library, once he had reached about two aisles away from where'd he'd placed the book he readied his wand. Slightly praying that Remus had managed to remove the book and was ready to make his escape, Sirius throw his spell on the book.

The cover of the Shrieking Book flew up and the wail that emanated from it startled even Sirius who had been bracing himself for it's effect. After a startled cry, that Sirius prayed belonged to Pince, he heard hurried footprints and willed himself to wait crouched down until Pince got to the book, the distraction would make no sense if he somehow managed to run into her as he was trying to flee.

Hearing her angry mutters as she tried to discern what spell had been used to keep the cover of the book pried open Sirius took his chance and dashed towards the front of the library. Reaching the safety of the hallway he dashed behind the closest statue and waited until the door opened once more hoping against all hope that it was Remus. Alone.

Barely able to finish his thought the door flew open and out bursted the tawny-haired boy. Sirius darted out from behind the statue and they both made eye contact as they breathed heavily, listening to the still shrieking book before the door to the library completely muted the sound.

Sirius let loose his signature bark-like laughter before they turned to dash in the direction of the Gryffindor common room. Despite the fact that he must have had multiple nights where he'd completed similar pranks with both James and Peter the feeling he got as he and Remus ran through the halls, the other boy's hair flying widely round his face and even when he pressed his body against Remus' using the excuse of hiding them from a prefect doing their rounds, was entirely new.

Bursting through the common room slightly out of breathe he caught James' eye before purposively strolling with Remus up to their dorm room.

James caught the closing door as he surged inside their room with Peter hot on his trails. "What's up? Where were you?" James focused his question at Sirius and seemed to completely ignore the presence of the smaller boy slumped beside him on the ground.

"Library, mate." Sirius managed to breath out as he struggled to catch his breathe.

"Library's closed, Sirius. And doubt _he'd_ be in the library after hours." James openly gestured to Remus incredulously even while sinking into a sitting position in front of Sirius.

Wordlessly, Remus produced a book from his bag with the air of someone unveiling a fantastic invention.

Leaning over, James and Peter both looked down from their position in the circle that had formed between the four boys.

"Moste Potente Potions," Peter breathed almost squealing in excitement as he turned to eye James.

"No way." James picked up the book carefully, his hazel flittering across the title of the book, the spine, and even going so far as to bring it up to his nose to take a quick sniff.

"Knock it off," Sirius threw his discarded robe over at the boy's direction. "You should've seen it James. Remus was brilliant, he managed to switch out the book with a lookalike and took off one of those annoying protection spells that Pince puts on anything worth reading."

"_You_?" James asked again looking up from the book to stare at Remus owlishly, Sirius was pleased to notice that James' voice had lost it's sneering quality and now seemed pleasantly surprised.

Remus laughed in the mischievous way that had filled the corridors as they ran back to the common room and flashed the boy a cheeky look. "I'm not as wet as I look."

James colored slightly before allowing his gaze to fall back on the cover the book. "Hmmm... Apparently not" he met Remus' eyes again before smiling slightly at him, the first smile Sirius noted, that James had ever bothered to direct at the boy.

"But-" James interrupted Remus' next comment, "Let's see how well you do with actually brewing these potions." He smirked quickly at his friends before opening the book and flipping through it.

"Who's the potion for?" Remus asked directing his gaze to Sirius.

"The school. It's for a new prank that we've been thinking of." Sirius answered truthfully as he walked over to his bed and began pulling off his school uniform.

Remus said nothing as the boys headed back to their beds to begin changing and getting ready for bed he caught Sirius' arm as he made to follow the other two boys into the bathroom. "It's not going to be dangerous, is it?" his wide amber eyes focused intently on Sirius' face as his top teeth sank into his plump, bottom lip.

"Of course, I go here you know. Wouldn't want to get expelled."

Remus seemed to calm instantly and as the four boys sank into their beds, they could still James pouring over the bags of the stolen book.

"Brilliant!" floated the still amazed voice of James through the darkness.

Sirius caught Remus' eye as the tawny haired boy shot him a wide grin, hair slightly tousled from their wild dash back to the Common room moments ago and his  
cheeks flushed with a pleasant color, Sirius couldn't help but revisit his earlier musings. Remus was definitely extremely attractive.

* * *

Also, Thanks for all the reviews so far, I really appreciate it.


	4. Chapter 4: That Green-Eyed Monster

**Disclaimer**: Hello all, I am not J.K. Rowling no matter what I tell myself at nights.

Also: Sorry for not updating last week, I'm trying to get into good habits with updating but I'm doing exams right now I have this case analysis that I haven't even looked at yet. But my exams are done on the 5th so after that it'll hopefully be a lot more regular updates. I'm sure that I could've gotten a chapter out last week but after I re-read my last chapter I realized how many mistakes there were, sorry for that I hope it wasn't too hard to read, so I'm trying to make sure I have enough time to edit before uploading anything.

Oh, also found out that Remus' eyes are suppose to be amber. Good. I like that better than green. Wonder if Rowling did that on purpose to contrast to Sirius' silver's eyes... in my dreams the answer is yes, yes she did.

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**Chapter Four: That Green-Eyed Monster**

* * *

"Remus!"

Remus halted from his path into the Great Hall looking for the owner of the voice which was two timbres deeper than he knew his brother's to be. Relaxing tense shoulders that he hadn't even been aware had raised a half of an inch in suspense he smiled at the pleasant face of Justin.

"Morning, you're up kinda early," Remus remarked laughing softly at the way the boy's light blonde hair stuck up at angles in front of his face, his usual perfectly symmetrical tresses falling hazardously in his eyes.

"Who me? Naw, I'm made for this time, can't you tell?" Justin grinned widely as he shook his head in an attempt to command his hair back into formation.

Taking his usual seat at the far end of the table Remus picked up three plates, the full moon was tonight, and began filling them with an assortment of food. Taking a break from staring determinedly at the fruit bowls he was trying to guide in his plate he could see Justin looking at him with open curiosity.

"You up this early to studying for a test or something?" Remus prompted hoping that he could stir the boy to leaving or at the very least distract him enough to allow Remus to carefully finish serving himself breakfast.

"What? No." Justin tore his eyes away from the contents of Remus' now filled second plate. "Our conversation was cut short last night, just wanted to make sure that Black didn't try that Limp Leg jinx on you while you were going up the stairs."

Remus laughed openly at that finally tearing his eyes away from where they'd been predatorily eyeing a plate of bacon, wondering if anyone would really notice if the entire platter's content disappeared. "Doubt that Sirius would try that on a prefect. Even he's not that thick." Remus had no quarrels with lightly teasing about Sirius' spontaneous and reckless attitude, it wasn't as if it were one of those 'state secrets' that the Muggles were always fussing over.

"Well, with that group you never can know." Justin had finally turned his attention to the platters of food in front of him and seemed to just realize how hungry he was as he began grabbing for the bacon that Remus had been eyeing only a moment before.

Remus hummed in response, it was also no secret that the group his dormmates had formed could at times be - in Lily's own words 'arrogant toerags'. Something Remus couldn't always defend.

While he found the elaborate pranks the group pulled to be clever and often so delightfully unexpected that he could hardly contain the smile that it inspired, he also knew that the group had other habits.

James and Sirius occasionally bullied other students, particularly Slytherins, and even more specifically a tall, lanky boy who excelled in potions, Severus Snape. Although Remus wouldn't be the first one to admit it, he had to nod in acknowledgment at the fact that Snape reeked an air of hostility.

He spent the majority of his time slinking around in the dungeons, his long, sleek, black hair always smelling slightly of some foreign potion ingredient and scowled openly at anyone who managed to get in his way. While this in and of itself wasn't a justifiable warrant for torment, James and Sirius had accepted the invitation his behavior offered and publicly ridiculed him as often as Snape allowed himself to be caught unsupervised in their sights.

Glancing round he was brought out of his musings when he realized that Justin was aiming a rather pleasant smile his way. "Sorry?" he asked immediately assuming that the boy must've been waiting for a reply.

He only shrugged, his big shoulders falling in a surprisingly graceful movement before swirling his fork in the puddle of syrup that was left on his plate. This stroke Remus as a rather insecure gesture before he let himself focus on the words that where now slipping from Justin's mouth.

"Well, the Hogsmeade trip is this weekend. Good thing, huh?" the blonde haired boy stared intensely at his empty plate, ignoring the platters of food arranged before him.

Launching into the subject of Hogsmeade, Remus went over the various shops that he'd love to visit and expressed excitement to be able to see the inhabitants of the small, but well stocked pet store.

Nodding in agreement, the other boy seemed to share his sentiments. Although Remus was handling the majority of the conversation, he couldn't help but notice how tense Justin still looked.

This was rather unusual as his carefree attitude and witty humor had earned him many friends even the people who didn't know him personally generally thought of him as 'that easy going Hufflepuff.'

While Remus rarely engaged in prolonged talks with anyone, for simple fear of the conversation becoming too personal and forcing him to awkwardly flee, he'd made an exception for Justin.

He had been so kind when he'd volunteered to go over Remus' Potion assignment after noticing that Remus was too embarrassed to take up much of the group's time on a single subject despite the obvious difficulty he was having.

At first Remus had trend carefully into conversation, watching the older boy for any hint that he may suspect his secret, but Justin had proved to be as kind and witty as his reputation suggested. Eventually, they'd fallen into an easy friendship, Justin rarely questioning the few days Remus was absent from the study group and Remus finding himself almost looking forward to the quick banter they exchanged in passing on the way to classes.

The only time Remus had ever seen him this nervous was probably closer to the end of their conversation last night. The boy had been growing so quiet that Remus had feared that he'd probably look like he was intending on climbing into the taller boy's mouth as he'd shifted closer to him, trying to catch the increasingly soft words tumbling from his mouth.

The distinct sound of the morning shuffle broke through the conversation that Remus had been supporting and with a glance towards Justin, who now seemed intent on counting the number of grapes in front of him, he reached over towards the bacon and shoveled the entire lot into his plate.

"Yeah, well... I'd actually wanted to ask you about that Hogsmeade trip." If Justin had noticed the small mountain of meat on Remus' plate has he tried rather desperately to cover it with a pancake he made no comment.

"Yeah, what about it?" Remus abandoned his table manners for way of just grabbing the bacon and throwing it down his throat trying to look as civilized as possible while in the act.

"Well... I was just wondering if you wanted to go."

Remus looked incredulously at the boy. Hadn't they just spent the good part of ten minutes going over how'd they'd both enjoyed this upcoming trip? Why would he suddenly not want to go? "Course I'm going, Justin. We were just talking about that, remember?" Remus was pleased that he'd somehow managed to sound quite concerned even as he picked up another handful of bacon.

Justin's face colored in an attractive way, "No, no. I mean - like, do you think you'd like to go _with_ me? To Hogsmeade."

He didn't use the word 'date' but somehow Remus heard it clearly and flushed slightly at his earlier naivety. He usually spent his Hogsmeade weekends, one's that he even bothered to attend, with his brother trailing awkwardly behind him and Amlise. He knew that no matter how venomously they denied it, they did wish for a bit of time alone in the romantic setting and often felt bad when he tagged along.

"Alright, that sounds great." Remus answered at length smiling up him.

"Cool," was all Justin said but the way he looked down at Remus made him sure that he wanted to say something more. Probably clarify his sexual orientation, or ensure that Remus fully understood what he was asking of him.

Remus had of course heard the rumors about Justin's past boyfriends and while the conversations he'd heard snippets of always seemed either take the side 'good for him' or 'that disgusting pounce' Remus hadn't had any strong feelings of outrage or disgust on the manner.

He himself had never had a girlfriend, nor had he found himself staring hungrily at the admittedly attractive group of Ravenclaw sixth year girls that the majority of the Gryffindor boys seemed to have taken a liking to. The only person Remus had ever caught himself thinking of, and quite a few times looking at, was Sirius Black.

Blushing at the thought of his silver eyed dormmate, Remus bite his lip in an attempt to ebb the flood of color spreading across his cheeks. While the two boys were something similar to friends now, Remus didn't dare entertain the thought of it developing into something romantic.

Justin was however, was a kind, attractive boy and when he wasn't apparently trying to ask Remus out on dates, he was incredibly funny and laid back. Remus had no doubts that he would have fun and with him there was always the possibility of it developing into something romantic.

"It'll be my first time..." Remus admitted hoping the boy understood the significance of his words.

Justin immediately beamed down at him, "It'll be great. I'm sure we'll have tons of fun."

Nodding as the taller boy seemed to finally relax Remus glanced past him to find his dormmates among the late stragglers.

Following his gaze, Justin stood from the table flicking his head to the left slightly and managing to finally arrange his hair in it's proper style, maybe Remus mused, it was time sensitive.

"Alright, well... Library tonight, right?" Justin asked simply.

"Can't. Something came up. But I'll see you round before the weekend," Remus brushed off the question almost effortfully as he waved the taller boy away.

He was not a moment too soon because as he noticed Justin sinking comfortably beside a group of boys in his peripheral vision Sirius dropped into the still warm seat.

"McDonald again, huh? He sure starting to seem...consistent," Sirius commented as he glanced over to the Hufflepuff with an unrecognizable glint in his eyes.

James roared with laughter, his usual morning temper evaporating almost tangibly from the table. This usually had the effect of making Sirius relax as he could now be confident in the easy participation of his unruly friend, but this morning it seemed to have the opposite effect and Sirius growled before flipping James off.

Remus choose not to comment on his unusual behavior and instead retreated into the safety of his Arithmancy book, revising the complex numerical sequence they were expected to learn.

Despite his position in the depths of his textbook he could feel the ill will that rolled off of Sirius' coiled shoulders and found himself wishing that he could resolve the boy's tension, has he'd done with Justin's nervousness, before he left for his first class not caring that he'd be ten minutes earlier than usual.

* * *

The sun was beginning to hang traitorously low, Remus noted, as he watched the golden sphere descend through a window above Sirius' head. Sighing he tried to draw his attention back to Sirius who was, for some inexplicable reason, waving his Potions book around going into excessive detail about how he planned on completing their latest assignment.

"Terrific. It sounds like it's going to make for a great potion." Remus actively worked his tense muscles into a fairly pathetic smile and tried not to groan as he shifted again, he only had a handful of hours before the transformation and his entire body was knotted in suspense.

Knowing he would fail but absolutely determined to try anyway he had brought his bookbag over to a quiet corner in the Common Room and had spent the good part of fifteen minutes staring blankly at the cover of his Transfiguration book before Sirius had joined him with an 'Oh Good. Your doing homework.'

He wasn't sure what had surprised him more this comment made without the hint of sarcasm or when Sirius had returned with his own bookbag and began talking insistently about their latest Potion assignment.

"You okay, Remus?" Sirius' large, warm hand found its way on Remus' left knee and all he could do was stare at it dumbly wondering if that hand had always felt so pleasant connected to his body.

He was sure he must've answered in the positive because Sirius' hand dislodged itself from its position on his knee and instead formed to wave over his head.

"C'mon!"Peter's excited voice called as a madly grinning Sirius gathered up both boy's books before following Peter to the confines of their dormitory.

Only a few steps behind Sirius Remus wasn't surprised to find that once he'd locked the door firmly behind himself, who knew what kind of delinquency he was to be made accomplice to, his roommates had already formed their tell-tale circle.

Remus had noticed that this was something they did increasingly often. James would sit in the position that naturally seemed to be the head as Sirius lounged against something, in this instance Remus' bed, and Peter sat beside the bespectacled boy edging as close as could be considered comfortable.

Prior to the beginning of their quasi-friendship Remus had often noticed similar circles forming all over the castle. In the courtyard, common room, and even once in the boy's washroom on the third floor but while he'd always been curious he'd long ago decided that someone with as many secrets as himself didn't deserve to speculate about other's.

"Well boys, I really think we've hit the jackpot with this one." Even though James' voice sounded fairly normal the way his eyes danced wildly beyond his spectacles was most certainly something Remus had not seen before.

"I've copied all the potions that could be useful somewhere down the line." A small bounded pile of parchment was produced and placed by the copy of 'Most Potente Potions' that James had laid in the centre of their circle. The boy had paused to regard it in a such a revert manner that Remus almost felt compelled to place his hand to its cover and begin reciting some form of behavioral creed.

"And let me tell you... They're good. This here - a Laxative Potion. Can you imagine?"

Sirius had picked up James' sacred book and was flipping through it without the reverent care that James had used.

"Trust me, mate. I can imagine. But I doubt that's something that we should be hitting the school with. Can't imagine what it'd do to old Dumbledore... But _this_ -" Sirius had stopped leafing through the book and a devilish smile spread across his face. "This is perfect."

Leaning forward from his position beside Sirius, Remus along with the other two boys, looked down at the open book that Sirius had returned to its position in the center of the circle.

"Screaming Snakes Hair Potion," James whispered, his voice soft as he reached out to brush the pads of his fingers against the title of the page. Picking up his own pile of parchment he shuffled around for a bit before coming to the copied page. "It _is_ perfect."

"We could turn the whole school into Medusas!" Peter cried wiggling in a childish show of excitement.

Remus said nothing as the boys fell, all at once, into an excited babble, going over how they could slip the potion to everyone in the Great Hall and spectating on what McGonagall would possibly look like with a bun of vicious snakes.

When the boys began discussing how to quantify the ingredients to make a potion strong enough to effect the entire student body Remus felt he had to say something. With the thought of how furious Amlise would be if anyone threatened the health of her midnight tresses he interrupted them.

"Uhm. So you guys were really thinking of hitting the whole school with this?"

"Of course. Why? Scared Prefect?" James sneered openly at him.

Remus kept silent, his eyes narrowing slowly at the bespectacled boy. While James had seemed kinder than usual after Remus had helped secure his now sacred book, he obviously still had no quarrels with attacking Remus' authoritarian position at Hogwarts.

Remus fleetingly noticed Sirius stiffen at James' words before he let out a slow breath, leaning casually against the closest bedpost "That's not it. Just thought you'd be smart enough to put something like this to good use."

He allowed himself a quick smile, barely a twitch of the right corner of his lip as he watched the boy struggled before him.

James was clearly uncomfortable with asking Remus his opinion but judging by the way his eyes swept feverishly across the pages of the book, brow furrowed in concentration, he couldn't seem to see any ways of improving their prank.

"Well? Out with it" the boy finally bite out looking up him, hazel eyes flashing with every bit of the annoyance he was feeling.

Smiling openly now at this small victory Remus twirled his wand carelessly between his index and middle finger as he leaned towards him.

"You mean you don't see it?"

Color stained James' face as Remus' taunting seemed to finally sink in and the boy scowled openly before ducking to continue examining the words of the book.

Remus watched the unruly mop of black hair for a minute, allowing the humiliation to settle in properly.

While he wasn't usually cruel it gave him a small amount of satisfaction to see James so openly uncomfortable and clearly embarrassed.

Although the boy could at times be something remarkably similar to polite, he was quick to lash out if he thought Remus was trying to curb his fun, or control him in any way. Mostly all Remus tried to do was make suggestions that would decrease the likelihood of them getting caught for their mischievous.

Sirius and Peter had seemed to understand that for they always looked slightly uncomfortable whenever James openly attacked him, regularly sending him apologetic looks whenever they thought that their friend was particularly cruel.

It was all unnecessary of course, while he didn't have many friends Remus was no push over. He was quite capable of taking care of himself and he wanted to make sure that James understood that if he was going to be spending anymore time sharing the spectacled boy's friends.

Finally he decided to share his opinions with the boy, "I'm just surprised that your not using this opportunity for revenge against the Slytherin Quidditch team."

James head shot up and his narrowed eyes widened in what Remus could only assume to be confusion.

"What? Don't tell me you've forgotten how McCowan knocked you clear off your broom during the first Quidditch match." Remus couldn't help but grimace when he'd remembered how the Slytherin Keeper had also taken an unnecessary swing at Amlise during Ravenclaw's first match against them. "They obviously have a thing for attacking Chasers. I just thought you'd want to get back at them."

The skin under James' left eye twitched at the mention of his near fatal fall just a few weeks ago. His mind seemed to have already stuck to the idea of revenge as he picked up his copy and began reading through it for specifics on the Potion.

"Can't lie. The idea of revenge on Slytherin for, well... Just about anything seems pretty good to me," Sirius said as he leaned luxuriously on the side of Remus' neatly made bed.

Peter said nothing but nodded in enthusiasm as he brought out snacks and started biting off the heads of pathetic looking half-melted chocolate frogs.

Once James' head had finally reemerged from the book he shot Remus a slightly hesitant smile before saying to his friends, "Yeah, I think we should hit Slytherin's Quidditch with it too."

Exhaling at the small victory of having rescued the beauty of Amlise's hair Remus too allowed himself to relax as he watched the boys plan their latest prank. It wasn't long before he found himself suggesting ways of spiking the Quidditch team's morning pumpkin juice.

Eventually Remus' eyes drew to the window of their dorm and he knew he could wait no longer. The last rays of the sun was casting its orange hue through the open window and Remus didn't want to take the chance of being late to meet Madam Pomfrey or risk the boys finally noticing something strange.

"Most of the ingredients for the Potion you should be able to find in the Hogsmeade apothecary and the rest... Well, I'm sure you have your ways." Remus stretched deeply trying in vain to bring himself some bit of relief from the tension in his muscles before moving to open his trunk.

"Too right we do. And trust me when I say they're brilliant," Sirius titled his head back smiling warmly at him before he noticed Remus puling out his cloak. "Wait a minute where are you going?"

Remus took his time folding his cloak into a neat square then tucking it under his arm and shutting his trunk before he finally turned back to the boys.

This was one part of their old relationship that he'd miss. The boys usually spent the majority of their afternoons lounging in the Common room or else suspiciously missing from the Gryffindor tower completely.

This left Remus the opportunity to draw the curtains tightly around his bed and cast a charm that would audibly ruffle his sheets until in the early morning. After that he would easily slip out the Common Room, no one ever questioned the movement of a prefect, and he usually assumed that they didn't even know which nights he'd been absent from their dorm.

That would obviously not work tonight.

"Just some prefect duties," Remus allowed his hair to fall in his face hoping it would cover the paleness that he knew his skin tone had taken.

"What? Now?"

"Yeah... Well, don't wait up." Remus moved towards the door but Sirius leaped up and blocked his path.

"You can't skip it? You really don't look all that well." Sirius brushed the strands of hair that had covered Remus' forehead in an attempt to peer into his eyes before the smaller boy jerked away from his touch.

"I'm fine, Black." He spat out rather venomously, instantaneously regretting it as a look of hurt passed Sirius' face.

Smiling the best he could, he reached over and grasped the hand he'd jerked away from squeezing it lightly before adding, "I'll try to think of how we can get the more... rare ingredients. Okay? See you soon."

And with that he shot one last look at Sirius and the other boys before crossing the room and shutting the door behind him.

* * *

Sitting naked, curled up in the darkest corner of the upstairs bedroom in the Shrieking Shack, Remus tried to avoid the pale light that had began extending on the floor from the window. Trying desperately he clung to the memories of his childhood, his family, the most recent summer Romulus, Amlise, and himself had spent at the Lupin cottage. When these memories began fading from his consciousness he focused on more recent ones.

Of Sirius falling gracefully into the seat beside him in Transfiguration.

Professor McGonagall's face when she'd past by their desk scrunching her nose at the scent of tobacco that lingered on Sirius' clothes.

Breakfast earlier that day in the Great Hall, Justin's tense shoulders as he'd leaned towards him trying to find the words to ask him to Hogsmeade.

All four boys huddled in the Gryffindor dormitory making plans of vengeance on the Slytherin Quidditch team, bursting out into a fit of laughter at the indignant look that crossed James' face when Peter had smeared a page of 'Moste Potente Potions' with the chocolate that had stained his fingers.

The moon had now risen fully, it's pregnant belly hanging menacingly from the sky and although Remus couldn't see it his bones reacted, answered to the call of it's magic. And he let out a painful scream.

His shoulder drew up and bent sharply back, the crack that resonated through the air ignored as blood flowed freely from his fingertips sharp, vicious nails that would in time sink into his own skin sprouted from his fingers, the bones on each elongating and breaking through skin.

His legs curled into his body, loosing their ability to stand on the pads of his feet, instead forming to hold his weight in a distinctly canine position.

By now his entire body had slumped forward and Remus found himself on his belly, his claws pressed firmly on either side of his head as his skin tingled and fur grew.

Gripping now, desperately to the last memories of his humanity Remus cried out in more pain then the entire transformation as the memory of the touch of his brother's hand against his forehead, of Amlise brushing against his shoulder, of Sirius' hand resting on his knee disappeared.

Howling in pain, the last remnants of his humanity slipped between his claws and he became the monster whose body he was trapped within.

* * *

A soft voice danced at the edge of his unconsciousness, calling him, beckoning him forward. Taking a deep breathe, Remus grappled at the memories that had evaded him, grasped to the fabric of his humanity, desperately weaving the torn pieces together as he struggled through the pain of the darkness to find himself.

Flashes came to him now. Long, wavy, golden blonde hair, a kind smiling face that cooed at him gently stroking his cheek - his mother. Strong hands, hoisting him up to rest on broad shoulders as his Dad ran with him wanting him to feel the warmth of the sun and the breeze flying through his hair. His brother's hand within his as he pulled him forward, urging him to run faster, the laughter in the boy's throat escaping as they raced, hand in hand, towards the cottage, towards their family, towards their home.

That's right. He was Remus Lupin. He had a beautiful mother, strong father, and a brother - who would squeeze his hand and lead him through the small cluster of trees closest to their home.

With these thoughts collected, safe once more in the recesses of his mind he pushed the darkness away and called towards the light.

"Remus, your awake!"

Delicate hands brushed the hair on his forehead away, stopping only for a moment to rest there before they fell down to his cheeks.

Remus looked up at earnest face of Amlise, her chocolate eyes shining happily as she glanced meaningfully across his bed. There, Romulus' face came into sight as he fixed him with a crooked grin.

"All right?"

"Course. Don't I always sleep in?" Remus stretched exaggeratedly ignoring the stinging on his left shoulder at the movement, and instead focused on how the creases in his brothers' forehead disappeared as he threw his head back and laughed loudly.

"Shh!" Amlise reprimanded instantly, but even Remus could see how the corners of her mouth arched up. "Honestly, I can't go anywhere with you two."

"Lighten up, love." Romulus reached into his robes and pulled out a small slab of chocolate, unwrapping one end before letting it fall on Remus' chest.

"Madam Pomfrey would skin you alive if she saw you feeding her patients junk," Amlise narrowed her eyes at the offending piece of chocolate before Remus stuck it greedily into his mouth.

"What? Poppy? Never. She loves me," Romulus' brows moved in an imitation of a Muggle actor they'd seen at the cinema that summer and even Amlise couldn't stop the flow of laughter that escaped from her.

"Shhh! Honestly, Ms. Cho this is a hospital not your dormitory," Madam Pomfrey entered from between the curtains surrounding the area of Remus' bed shooting Amlise a dirty look before turning to Remus who had thrown the remaining chocolate beneath his sheets.

"How are you feeling dear?"

"No worse than usual," he replied honestly. It wasn't as if he was foreign to the dull ache that settled in his bones, and he knew that the small flow of blood leaking through the bandage of his shoulder would in time stop.

Pomfrey busied herself with redressing his wounds, stopping momentarily to run her wand across a particularly nasty looking cut before forcing him to down three, rather disgusting tasting potion, one of which he immediately recognized as Blood Replenishing Potion before finally satisfied.

"Alright, you're fine to leave when you feel up to it. But you know the rules, get straight to bed and absolutely no magic until your wounds have healed, understood?" Pomfrey shot him a menacing look and Remus knew that if he attempted even a simple levitating charm he would be back in the hospital wing, forcibly bound a bed before he could finish uttering 'Leviosa.'

Shooting one last dirty look at Amlise she disappeared through the curtains to tend to her other patients.

Looking quite flustered Amlise didn't dare speak as she stood up and gathered a pile of parchment on the bedside table which Remus assumed to be the homework she'd collected for the classes he'd missed that day. Nodding silently at him, she scowled at Romulus before stepping outside the curtains giving Remus privacy to change.

After he'd shed the hospital gown, with some silent help from Romulus, the three students began the ascend to the Gryffindor Common Room. He knew that it was almost dinner time but he wouldn't dare show his face in the Great Hall, not when he knew that he wore fresh scars from the night before.

Looking wistfully down the stairs that would take them towards the kitchens, Remus almost stumbled as Amlise laid a deceptively strong hand on his shoulder steering him towards his dorm.

"Don't worry about food. I've packed everything you need in here." She lifted his bag for clarification. "You've got soup, tons of vegetables, and liver - I've heard that's really good for you."

Remus paled slightly at the diet that Amlise would subject him to until he felt ready to venture into the kitchen himself, shooting a pleading look at his brother, he almost cried out in relief when Romulus gestured to his own bag mouthing 'Chocolate.'

"I think you'll be fine in time for the Hogsmeade trip actually," Amlise turned to him again, eyes sweeping across his body for the umpteenth time that afternoon.

"Can't wait to get to the Three Broomsticks, I feel like I haven't had a Butterbeer in years," she grinned up at Romulus blushing slightly as he laid his hand on the small of her back.

"You'll want to check out Tomes and Scrolls, right?"

"Well..." Remus trailed off, he'd hoped that he could avoid such an awkward conversation until, well, until the day of the trip where he could gesture to Justin and shrug before disappearing with him. "I won't be going with you guys this weekend."

Romulus frowned at that, "What? It's the first Hogsmeade trip of the year. And I promise that we won't go anywhere near Madam Puddifoot's." He made a quick face at Amlise before bursting out into another round of laughter.

Smiling at him Remus shook his head before continuing, "No, I just mean that I'm going with someone else."

"Oh really? Like a date? Do we know her?" Amlise's eyes sparked with something undeniably mischievous and Remus made an internal note to keep her away from any dates that he managed to secure in the future.

"Something like that. Justin McDonald, the Hufflepuff," Remus clarified unnecessary his eyes refusing to meet theirs as he cursed the slow pace that he was limited to.

"McDonald... He's a year younger than us, right? The sixth year?" Amlise turned to Romulus who nodded briefly.

"He seems like a nice guy, heard he's really funny," she supplied when it seemed like his brother was not going to say anything.

Reaching the entrance of the Gryffindor Common Room, Amlise turned towards both boys before shuffling her feet silently and placing Remus' bag by his feet. "I've got to check something out from the library real quick. I'll see you at dinner." She pressed her lips to Remus' forehead causing him to flush in embarrassment before cupping Romulus' cheek and disappearing down the hall.

"Aren't you gonna to say something?" Remus asked finally as he stared at the Fat Lady trying to look as though she wasn't paying much attention to the brothers in front of her.

"Gimme another minute." Romulus' face had that blank, distance look that it formed whenever he was working on a particularly difficult puzzle. His fists were clenched to his side and his eyes stared unseeingly at the suit of armor that stood a few feet away from them.

Remus stared at his brother's clenched fist wondering if the other boy wouldn't hit him, before the fist grew impossibly tight and his brother took a deep breathe.

"Right... Right," Romulus shook his head a bit and turned back to Remus focusing on the small boy before him. His top teeth grazed against his bottom lip and he shifted his weight from one leg to another, looking uncomfortable and for once, unsure of how to hold himself.

"So then... you think... you...you like this bloke?" Romulus asked meeting his brother's eyes before color stained his face and forced him to look away again.

"Well, he's pretty nice to me and he's fun to be around."

"Remie, just because someone is nice to you doesn't mean that you _like_ them like that," Romulus said sounding pained and like he was clearly wishing that he didn't have to have this conversation.

"I know that, Rom." Remus said unable to keep the annoyance out of his voice, "I know the difference. I don't know what to tell you, it's nice to be around him... "

Remus quieted taking a deep breathe before continuing, "It's fun, okay. It's fun to be around him. He's laid back and isn't nosy. I feel normal and...and _happy_."

Remus didn't mention that he had noticed how attractive the older boy was, the way his brother's face had paled already told him that the boy properly couldn't handle much more.

Romulus said nothing but nodded, eyes still focused on the stationary suit of armor. "If you're sure."

Remus smiled up gratefully at him, his brother didn't mention it but he knew he wouldn't tell his parents, he'd give Remus the opportunity to figure out what he was doing, what he wanted before sharing anything with their parents.

"And hey, if he's turns out to be an asshole. Amlise and I can hex him well into next year."

Remus burst out laughing, happy to see his corners of his brother's lips crinkle in the familiar carefree smile and the tension disappear from the air.

Making one last face, a token from their days on the playground, Romulus withdrew a large brick of chocolate from his bag and handed it to his younger brother. Cupping his hands behind his head and still laughing he disappeared down the corridor.

* * *

Remus sighed turning to look at his left side in the full length mirror by the door of the dorm, he didn't think he looked much better from this angle either.

Wrinkling his brow he turned back to his trunk, searching for something, _anything_ that would make him look fit.

Nothing.

He wore a pair of black jeans with an oversized, dark green jumper and his standard, black school cloak fastened around his neck. Not for the first time, he did wish that he had something that stood out from his usual clothes, he realized that he regularly dressed like he was headed to the library or preparing to take up his Prefect duties.

"Oh good, you're ready," Sirius entered the dorm, grinning good naturally at Remus before headed to his own truck. "Wouldn't believe what I just went through. Filch kept accusing me of hexing that bloody cat of his red. Personally I thought that it matched her evil eyes, he didn't seem to see it that way though. Threatened to keep me from Hogsmeade, like that bloody git has enough magic to do such a thing."

Sirius had retrieved his cloak, a stunning charcoal color that brought out his eyes, and flung it carelessly over his own clothes, ripped jeans over a black and grey stripped jumper before headed to the door.

"Coming?" he asked as he turned to regard Remus who was staring wistfully down at his own ensemble.

Nodding wordlessly, he followed Sirius and was soon joined by both Peter and James, who looked like he was having a good day and greeted him with a small smile, before heading down to the entrance by the Great Hall.

Stopping, Remus lingered by the large doors, looking around for Justin. He could see a group of Hufflepuff boys who he was sure Justin regularly hung around with but he couldn't see his wavy, blonde hair in that crowd.

"Remus? C'mon. Let's get a carriage." Sirius gestured to the gates a small distance down the grounds where Remus could see the white carriages, some already moving towards the village.

"Well actually..." Remus couldn't believe his luck. He really had no intention of having this conversation with his dormmates, after all, how could he have guessed that they'd expected to go with him to Hogsmeade.

"What's wrong?" Sirius asked his voice growing softer as he took a step closer to the smaller boy effectively blocking him from sight of his two other friends.

At that moment Justin appeared at the stairs leading up the Great Hall and waved over in Remus' direction, "Hey!" he greeted smiling even from a distance.

Remus waved a hand weakly in his direction, watching as the older boy drew closer to him before turning back to Sirius.

"Actually, I'm headed to Hogsmeade with Justin. I didn't realize that you guys would want to do something."

Sirius was silent and instead choose to watch as Justin finally approached the two boys, stepping closer to Remus then strictly necessary and beaming down at him. "Ready to go?"

Nodding, Remus turned back to shoot one last look at Sirius. "Maybe if we're all at the Three Broomsticks together we can grab a drink."

Remus was met with more silence but at least this time Sirius was able to jerk his head in an affirmative answer.

Somehow knowing that this was the best that could be expected Remus left with quick goodbyes to both Peter and James before walked towards the carriages with Justin.

* * *

Thankfully, Justin was a lot more relaxed than he had been a few days prior. The boy's eyes sparked with life as he eagerly led Remus from shop to shop not complaining when Remus spent an extraordinary time staring at the different kinds of chocolate available at Honeyducks. Justin even suggested that they stop by Tomes and Scrolls because there was a book that he wanted to check out that he doubted Madam Pince would stock.

"Let's head down this way," Justin suggested as he steered Remus down a snowy pathway, despite the fact that it had only barely started to snow at Hogwarts Hogsmeade was coated in a thick white layer making everything look pure and fresh.

"That building looks creepier every time I see it."

Justin was referring to the Shrieking Shack and Remus silently agreed with him. He hated seeing it at night, knowing that it's dark confines promised nothing benevolent but during the day, the small house didn't look much better.

"True, I don't usually come by here." Remus smiled up at him wondering not for the first time if he was acting normally, he'd never been on a date before and in all honestly this didn't feel any differently from when the two boys usually spent time together.

"We can keep going." Justin took Remus' hand in his interlocking their fingers and lead him away from the house, a blush spreading across his face.

Oh. Now Remus understood. His stomach had given an unusual lurch when Justin's fingers had touched his and he was sure that his own face had gone up in flames.

Gesturing to a near by bench Justin sat down with Remus' hand still clasped in his grasp and a blush still coloring his cheeks.

Unnerved by the silence Remus worked to fill the pause with a synopsis of the chocolate at Honeyducks, trying hard to keep the envy out of his voice when his eyes flickered over to Justin's own large bag of sweets.

Laughing, the boy reached in and retrieved a large slab of chocolate, and while Remus salivated unashamedly, broke off a piece and held it up to Remus' lips his mouth in a hesitant smile.

Blush growing steadily more prominent by each passing minute, Remus opened his mouth to what he hoped was an average size and allowed the boy to feed him the piece.

Silence once again fell over them as Remus suckled gently on the piece of chocolate.

"I hope your enjoying yourself," taking in Remus' nod, the older boy continued, "I am too. You're really fun to be around."

Justin's grip tightened on Remus' hand and when he looked up to meet the older boy's blue eyes he saw Justin shoot him a resolute look before leaning forward.

Breathe catching, Remus stilled, his face now embarrassingly hot and hoped that he wasn't about to make a complete fool of himself.

"MCDONALD!" came an infuriated yell.

The boys jerked away from each other before their lips were able to meet and looked towards the sound.

Sirius was speeding towards them, his face in a mask of pure rage as he screamed violent obscenities at the boy. James and Peter trailing after him with a look of sick enthusiasm on both their faces.

"Sirius! What's wrong?" both boys launched off the bench as Remus ran to meet Sirius trying to keep him from Justin.

"That fucking git hexed me!"

Now directly in front of Sirius Remus could see it, the left side of his face had a large, black mark stopping at his ear that looked like he'd been hit with a burn hex.

Biting his lip, Remus shook his head confidently. "No, Sirius. It couldn't have been him. He's been with me this whole time."

Sirius looked down at Remus and for a moment the smaller boy was sure that everything had been sorted out.

That is until Justin made the tactical error of approaching them, anger framing his features.

"Oi, What's your bloody problem?"

Sirius' eyes landed on Justin, going hard for a minute before his face contorted in an angry, cold expression that Remus had never seen.

Sneering he replied, "you are, you bloody git" and drew his right fist back slamming it into Justin's jaw.

* * *

Thanks again for all the reviews, favourites, and follows I really appreicate it. It's great to know that people are actually interested in my fic.

Oh, and hopefully my writing is getting better with each Chapter, I'm always reading it a week later and finding something that I want to improve on. If you see anything please feel free to mention it.

Thanks for reading!


	5. Chapter 5: A Dangerous Miscalculation

**Disclaimer:** J.K. Rowling, I am not.

I just.. I.. I can't. This took forever. It had actually been done for a week but I had trouble communicating with my Beta because they're rather busy at the moment so unfortuantely this chapter isn't Beta'd. I'll let you know when my new Beta is available to edit my chapters, so please excuse any grammatical errors, I try and still I fail.

Also, if you check my profile you can find updates on how far along I am on my next chapter... my next one shouldn't take as long, but you know.. just in case.

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**Chapter Five: A Dangerous Miscalculation**

* * *

It occurred to Sirius only after he'd swung the first punch and heard the surprisingly satisfying sound of a groan of pain escape from Justin, that he was going about this the wrong way; these thoughts were forcibly knocked from him as Justin seemed to get his bearings and launched at him, tackling him to the ground.

Sirius swung out at the boy on top of him and managed to turn them over so that he was straddling the older boy's hips. Concentrating on bringing his fist back to connect with the boy's head as often as possible, he tried fugitively to dodge the ones that Justin aimed at him in retaliation.

"Stop it! What are you idiots doing?"

Right when he'd gotten a hold of Justin's stupidly, symmetrical hair and managed to slam his head violently into the snowy grass he felt a weight assault his back, tugging at him. Sirius shook his shoulder roughly trying to dislodge the smaller boy without hurting him.

"James!" He yelled not needing to articulate much further as he felt the weight being lifted off him and heard the indignant cries of 'Get off me you idiot, they're killing each other!'

This, Sirius thought, was a fair assessment of what was happening. He really hadn't given much thought to Justin's weight or height when he'd attacked him and realized now that the boy was evenly weighed against him and seemingly just as angry.

"Bloodly bastard!" Justin kicked out at him and Sirius grunted in pain releasing the boy's tuff of hair as his body crumbled forward. Freed, Justin sprung up, reversing their position as he brought his fists down on Sirius repeatedly.

"Go get the sixth year Hufflepuffs, the ones that come by the library after the study group gets out. Go!"

Sirius vaguely noted Peter scurrying back down the path towards the more clustered shops in Hogsmeade before he lashed out at Justin, kicking him far away enough to give himself the room to stand.

When both boys had made it to their feet, visibly battered, they stared at each other with open loathing.

"Can't figure out why they haven't thrown your ass in Slytherin yet, you have scum snake written all over you," Justin spat out at him nastily wiping at the blood that had been freely flowing from a cut above his brow.

"Shut up, git. Just stay away - stay away from all of us" Sirius hissed angrily narrowing his eyes as he spat out the blood that had collected in his mouth.

"_Us_?" Justin raised one blonde, almost transparent eyebrow before glancing over to where James was restraining Remus; the smaller boy looking on at them anxiously, clearly hoping that the two would resolve their issues without the use of more violence.

"You've got to be kidding me." Justin glared at Sirius before laughing, "Speak for yourself, Black. I happen to know that some of you like when I get close, real _close_."

With another cry of rage Sirius launched himself at the boy tackling him to the snow again. He couldn't figure it out but something about Justin's smirking, irritating face commandeered Sirius' good senses and ignited a fire he rarely felt outside of Grimmauld Place.

Just when he thought that he'd be able to strangle the self-indulged smirk off the older boy's face he felt strong hands grip his shoulders and pull him back.

Breathing heavily and wiping at the flood of blood that gushed from the cut on his bottom lip he glared at the two boys who were holding both him back, sneering at Justin as two other boys, Hufflepuffs, held him up.

"What? Done already?"

"Dunno, can you still walk?" Justin made to move towards him but the boys flanked on either of him were apparently ready for this and started pulling him back with words of 'It's not worth it' and 'Mate, have you lost your mind?'

Shaking off the two boys, Smith and Otterburn, he turned to regard the figure of the angry Hufflepuff who was now being pulled back down the road to Hogsmeade, three boys tugging at his cloak while the fourth had his wand pointed at his face, muttering under his breath.

"You can't have everything you want, Black. Try not to let the thought drive you crazy," Justin sneered and Sirius was sorry to see the cut above his brow had stopped bleeding and was starting to smooth into untarnished skin.

"Fuck you McDonald, just stay outta my way," Sirius took a few steps towards Justin before Remus finally broke away from James' hold and ran up to him, clinging on to his arm to stop him from rushing at the group of retreating Hufflepuffs. Slipping his hand around Remus' shoulder he warned again, "Stay away."

"Are you insane? I told you Justin had nothing to do with this." Remus reached up and brushed his fingers softly against the original burn mark and Sirius tried to ignore the pool of heat spreading to his stomach at the boy's touch.

Scoffing, Sirius replied, "Really now? Cause he seemed _so_ harmless."

"I'd be mad if you attacked me too, git." Remus' voice held no contempt but instead all the patience of a school teacher disciplining an unruly student. He had taken his wand out and was mumbling the spell that Sirius knew would heal the bruised skin of his face.

Finally approaching him, James avoided his eyes as he took his wand out as well, swiping it over the original burn mark and muttering the long, lyrical spell that would heal the wound.

It wasn't until Peter timidly pulled out his own wand to join the two in front of Sirius that the boy finally jerked his face away from Remus' hand. "Oh no, I'd rather walk around looking like an idiot than let you test your healing spells on me."

The boys burst out laughing, Peter's flushed face grinning happily at them while he shrugged and stuffed his wand back into his robes.

"You really are a tosser, you know?"

"A right twat," James happily agreed as he backed up, surveying his work with his tongue poking out from the right corner of his mouth. "You know, mate. I think you looked better before, maybe I should"

With a bark of laughter Sirius rushed James into the snow bank behind him while Peter laughed.

"You okay?" Sirius asked brushing his shoulder against Remus as the boys headed down the path to Hogsmeade, the smaller boy had paled significantly and Sirius worried that he'd become sick again, like the past few days that he'd rarely left their dorm.

"Fine," Remus answered huffing slightly as he drew breath, "But really Sirius. I don't think Justin had anything to do with that burn hex. I bet it was just some nutter who looked like him."

James quickened his pace looking almost guilty as he shoved his wand deeper into his robes.

Sirius hummed dismissively while he looked at the back of James' unruly jet-black hair. Although his friend was only a few inches shorter than himself, and had a lean built from the time spent on the Quidditch field, James certainly could not pass for the Hufflepuff boy. Maybe, Sirius mused, the next time he got James to attack him, he could persuade the boy to take some Polyjuice Potion to show Remus that McDonald really was a nut.

As if they'd developed a telepathic connection from all the late nights spent in each other's bed whispering quietly to each other, James swirled his head around sharply, shooting him a filthy look as if he could hear the thoughts that were swirling around Sirius' head.

Grinning sheepishly at him, Sirius inched still closer to Remus. This was something that he'd been doing since they'd left the fenced area of the Shrieking Shack and as they neared the Three Broomsticks the space between the two boys seemed minuscule when compared to the gap between Peter and James.

"Hey Remus!"

A Hogwarts couples had exited the warmth of the Three Broomsticks and had turned their attention to Remus. The girl, who had been tightened her blue and bronze woolen scarf around her neck, threw her arms around the small boy making him take a few uncoordinated steps backwards.

"Where's McDonald?" The Ravenclaw girl asked as she pulled away from him, she had given Sirius a quick, accessing look but politely averted her eyes when she realized that he was watching her. The boy standing beside her however, paid him no such courtesy.

He towered easily over both his female companion and Remus, surpassing even Sirius in height, as he stared blatantly at him.

Sirius trying determinedly to avoid his eyes found himself growing increasingly self-conscious and suddenly hoped that James and Remus had done a decent job cleaning him up.

Risking it, Sirius' eyes swept over the boy, taking in his deep blue eyes, which had not wavered from his face, and his golden blonde hair. _Oh_. The boy's hair color looked strikingly similar to the hue that Remus' attained when basked in the morning light. His features were well proportioned set in an oval shaped face, with big (though at the moment they remained quite narrowed) almond shaped eyes mirrored Remus' exactly only differenced in the sun-skinned complexion they were set in as well as the rugged facial hair that decorated his chin.

Shaking his head slightly, Remus turned to Sirius beckoning him closer to the trio.

He hesitated for a moment at the look of open hostility that crossed the taller boy's - Remus' brother - face.

"This is Sirius," Remus gestured to him, "Sirius, this is Amlise and my brother, Romulus."

"Nice to meet you," Amlise said smiling brightly at him as she took his hand in hers. Sirius returned her smile but quickly withdrew his hand when he noticed Romulus stiffen as they'd touched.

"Where are you guys coming from?" Amlise asked him while she reached out and brushed the hair from Remus' face pausing to touch his forehead gently.

Not sure if he should feel relieved that he apparently wasn't the only one who thought that Remus looked weak, he tore his eyes away from Remus' pale, now exposed forehead, "Just down by the Shrieking Shack."

Something about his response had an enormous affect on the small group and Sirius could've sworn that the air stilled around them as Amlise's smile slipped from her face. It was only gone for a second and as Sirius looked back at her in confusion she seemed to catch herself and the smile returned to her face.

"Oh? Most people don't go down there, do you pass by often?" Although the smile had been repositioned back on her face, almost as if it'd never left, Sirius could see a calculating look harden in her eyes.

"Naw, wouldn't bother. There's really not much around there," Sirius tried to catch Remus' eyes but the other boy seemed to be staring determinedly away, looking uncomfortable as he shifted around slightly.

"It gives me the creeps that place." Amlise had taken her attention away from him and had turned to envelop Remus in another tight hug.

"Well, if you're done with the inquisition, we'll be going inside now," Remus muttered as he shook her off fixing her with a meaningful look.

His brother had finally taken his eyes away from Sirius' form and moved to collapse upon Remus' back right as he'd managed to free himself from the older girl, "You know we worry, you're just so small."

Wiggling from his grasp and scoffing loudly, Remus shot the boy a dirty look before looking at Sirius, "C'mon. These two have nothing good to say."

Sirius could think to do nothing but smile weakly as he took a few steps towards the Three Broomsticks, "It was nice meeting you Amlise and Romulus," he said in what he hoped was a casually polite voice.

"Yeah, hopefully we'll see you again."

From the look on Romulus' face, Sirius was almost sure that the boy did not and would not hope for such a thing.

"Hopefully not," Remus muttered beside him - and Sirius wondered if Romulus and Remus didn't share their own psychic connection - "Those two really are nutters. Oh look there's James and Peter."

Remus walked over to where the boys had secured a table for them, warm Butterbears already clasped in their hands, and took a seat beside Peter, leaving Sirius to sit beside James.

It was when the boy elbowed him painful in the ribs while Remus had reached into his pocket to scrounge around for change, that Sirius remembered that James would probably still not be too happy with him.

"It's on me," Sirius said smiling at Remus as he stood up to escape James' intense glare.

"Get me another one too, this one's almost done," his spectacled friend called after him and Sirius didn't miss the sharpness of his tone.

* * *

"Are you gonna explain what all that was about then?" James didn't even bother to wait till Remus had reached the stairs leading to the boy's dormitory before he rounded on Sirius.

Sirius shifted in his chair, his eyes following Remus as the boy disappeared up the coil of the staircase. "What all what was about?" He mumbled trying to put off the conversation for as long as possible.

"Don't jerk me around, Black" James scowled, "What was all that in Hogsmeade?"

Sirius pressed his lips together in a defiant manner, watching the fire crackle as heat flooded into the relatively empty Common Room.

"I mean, not that I minded getting in a free shot at you with that burn hex," James grinned at him slightly, "And I'm all up for a bit of fooling around here and there, but - mate, you really looked like you were gonna hurt McDonald."

"Me? What about him? Cause I'm telling you, he seemed pretty homicidal from where I was standing."

James' lip thinned and he fixed him with a look that made him seem far older than a boy of fifteen.

"I'm serious." His brow rose as if daring Sirius to make the joke that he'd been effectively slipping into conversations since first year, "I just don't like seeing you like that - so out of control, and well a bit _mad_."

Sighing loudly, Sirius nodded as he ran his hands through his hair, "I know, I know. But there's something about him - I can't put my finger on it - but I can't stand it."

Leaning forward from _his_ chair, James knocked his knee against Sirius' in an affectionate manner, "Hey, it's cool. I'm gonna assume it's something like Snivellus."

Sirius laughed at that his head shaking at James, "I don't think anyone is quite like Snivellus."

"No, probably not."

Grinning wildly James' looked around the Common Room before continuing in a significantly quieter tone, "Anyways, it's not all bad. At least you stopped McDonald from beating you to the punch, but I'm suppose he can always have him when you're done."

The residual grin that had decorated Sirius' face after the joke at Snivellus' expense fell quickly as he scowled.

"And..." James continued not seeming to notice the look that had darkened Sirius' face, "At least now you know that Remus is a pounce. Now all you gotta do is get him out those prefect boxers."

Sirius's scowled deepened into something that almost made him seem unattractive and he huffed slightly turning away from his friends.

Peter who had apparently deemed it safe to join the conversation now that the tension had disappeared from the group, leaned forward, his eyes landing on Sirius.

"That's _if_ he can." The boy wrinkled his freckled nose in Sirius' direction before turning to James.

Humming, Sirius said nothing but drew his eyes back to staircase.

While he had convinced James to help pull the 'prank' on the older Hufflepuff, he had to admit that he hadn't been thinking about their bet at the time.

All he had wanted was to get Justin as far away from Remus as possible. Sirius wasn't stupid, he saw the way Justin looked at the smaller boy. He recognized the way his head titled towards Remus when they spoke, and how he brushed against Remus' shoulder to secure his attention, Sirius knew that Justin liked his prefect dormmate.

And although Sirius didn't know him well enough, he also knew that he, himself hated Justin.

Maybe, he reasoned, it was this hate that told him no matter what happened with him and Remus, Justin should never, ever get too close.

* * *

"There it is." Remus nodded towards a vial that Slughorn clutched tightly in his fat, stubby fingers, waving it about in enthusiasm.

"One of the most potent magnificus potions in existence and it'll combine with almost anything safely," the large professor was saying.

Remus finally lifted his predatory gaze away from the clear liquid sloshing around the transparent vial to shoot Sirius a sly grin.

"Can't we just make it ourselves?" Sirius asked. He highly doubted that prying the potion out of Slughorn's grip would be anything short of a miracle, the way the man's big, dark eyes settled on the liquid almost lovingly made that all too clear.

"If we had half a year," Remus titled his head slightly before glancing around them and leaning even closer whispering, "but I doubt those Slytherins are going to poison themselves."

Sighing with all the world-weariness of an old man Sirius shook his head slowly, "Don't suppose they will, will they? It's a shame though, it really would clear up my schedule."

Snorting, Remus brought his hand to his mouth coughing for a moment to regain his composure before continuing his note taking.

This, Sirius decided, was yet another thing he liked about the smaller boy. Remus hadn't missed a point that Slughorn made during the entire period, his hand flew gracefully across the page as he made neat, composed notes complete with small diagrams and underlined emphasizes.

While he appeared to be extremely focused on the lecture of Mandins, his eyes has been glued on the left side of Slughorn's cloak lighting up, almost dangerously, when the old professor had revealed the vial.

"But seriously, I don't think anything short of an explosion will tear Slughorn away from that potion," Sirius muttered practically into the boy's ear.

He stiffened for a minute and Sirius watched as his eyes darted around the room, landing on the unused cauldrons in the back row of the class before shaking his head slightly to himself. "We'll find a way."

Sirius highly doubted this but nodded absentmindedly a few times before turning sharply towards James, his brows raised his annoyance. 'What?' he mouthed.

He had felt James' eyes burning holes in the back of his head, and his neck prickled irately where he knew that the spectacled boy's eyes had laid.

James said nothing, allowing the frown on his face to deepen before he glared at the back of Remus' light brown hair, sighing almost audibly he shot a disgusted look at Peter who sat beside him, wiping fruitlessly at a spreading stain of chocolate on his notes.

Shrugging, Sirius tried to convey the message of 'suck it up, it's just one class' to the boy who only frowned more before rolling his eyes and turning his attention to Lily.

To be honest, Sirius wasn't sure what James was so annoyed about. They needed that vial. They'd started brewing the potion the day of the Hogsmeade trip, gathering ingredients slowly and beginning the long, brewing process required.

Remus had been the one to suggest using the rare Magnifus potion, insisting that Slughorn kept a vial on him at almost all times.

While it had seemed like a great idea at the time, now considering the way Slughorn's fat fingers secured around the small phial Sirius wasn't so sure it was possible.

"Slughorn's got a free period next" floated over towards Sirius as Remus' head turned quickly in his direction.

Sirius' brow arched comedically, "So? I don't care if he's in class or not, I'm not ambushing him."

"No?" Remus rested his head on his hand, smiling although he stared straight ahead, "What about all those stories I heard about the brilliance of Sirius Black?"

"Brilliance? Yes. Insanity? Well, that part hasn't kicked in just yet."

"Oh?" This time Remus' head titled slightly as he eyes finally fell on Sirius, "Too bad, I always wanted to see a bit of that Black insanity."

Sirius colored slightly at the boy's words, not gathering a response fast enough as Remus' eyes left him to return to the phial, his hand never wavering from his neat lines.

Sirius stared at him for a minute before remembering how creepy such a thing looked in public, and forced himself to look down at his own blank piece of parchment.

For some reason, some strange inexplicable reason, talking to Remus always came with the hazard of the boy saying something to render his mind temporarily useless.

It wasn't like Sirius to fumble and struggle with his words, he usually exuded confidence, saying just enough (but never too much) to get what he needed out of a situation.

Remus, it seemed, had a strange affect on him. At times, they could slip effortlessly into conversation, conversing as if they had years to perfect their friendship and at times, well, at times Remus could say something to make Sirius feel like an utter wanker.

This had never happened to him before, no boy or girl for that matter, ever managed to stump him like Remus did. Girls where usually so focused on his face that they often missed the complexities that slipped from his mouth and guys, well, most guys seemed just as dull of the girls or either lacked the sense of humor required to understand the subtleties of Sirius' witticism.

Remus, possessed neither of these flaws. His clever eyes were usually focused on Sirius', only ever really wavering in situations such as the one they were currently in, when the smaller boy was much more focused on a separate objective.

And while Sirius had always assumed that Remus possessed no sense of humor, much like the bland, prefect that James was still convinced that he was, Sirius found that wrong as well.

Remus' humor was drier than Sirius was used to, contrasting sharply with James' clear, almost harsh brand and even his own, smooth style. Remus' was that rare type that seemed to flow effortlessly into conversation, it usually ran the danger of being overlooked, despite how humorous it was when noticed.

Sirius often found Remus' sly remarks to be so unexpected that he almost always smiled uncontrollably, his face splitting open in a stupid grin that he was too slow to stop.

"Ouch!" Sirius cried as he was jerked out of his thoughts by a fierce, burning sensation on his skin. Cradling his left hand to his shoulder, he could see the spreading of odd, purplish looking blisters across his hand, lighting the skin that became infected on fire.

"Sir, we have a problem," Remus' large, amber eyes had turned to look up at Slughorn, who Sirius just noticed had dismissed the class and was waving students out his room with a flick of his wrists.

James and Peter had been standing by the door, waiting for him but shrugged and moved away as they allowed Slughorn to usher them out of the room.

"What seems to be the matter, Mr. Lupin?"

"Sirius was just showing me his potion for his next assignment," Remus nodded to a vial with orange liquid that laid deceptively innocently on their desk. Sirius stared at it wildly wondering where in the hell it had come from.

"I think he was trying to make an argument for the significance of incorporating the Mandrin into his potion," Remus nodded towards the professor, titling his head slightly as he smiled. Sirius, who was extremely confused and still in a significant amount of pain nudged the smaller boy slightly.

"Uhm, Remus?" he tried.

"And," Remus continued, his left hand finding its way on Sirius' thigh squeezing it slightly as he spoke, "I think it must've reacted badly in the time it's been sitting in the sun." Remus made another sad face at the offending vial, "He's split some on himself and I think he's really hurt."

Remus' nails, which looked deceptively blunt, dug into Sirius' thigh through the fabric of his trousers, causing the boy to emit a low, whining sound.

Seemingly satisfied, Remus' nails released the flesh of his thigh.

"Oh, dear boy," Slughorn turned his beady, black eyes towards Sirius, giving him a sympathetic look before eyeing the seemingly acidic contents of the phial on their desk, "But I'm sure that Madam Pomfrey can clear that right up."

"Actually..." Remus seemed to almost lean towards the man as if he was sharing a secret between old friends, "I was wondering if we could use a bezoar to clear up his potion, I remember you saying that they'd heal almost anything. And well... I just couldn't help but be fascinated."

"Well, Mr. Lupin, you should know that those are for the Sixth year students after they've gotten their O.W.L.S."

"Oh, but of course, professor."

Sirius watched as an eerily convincing look of innocence settled on Remus' face as his brows raised.

"It's just that well," the smaller boy shot the man a rather crooked smile as he shrugged helplessly, "it just sounded _so_ fascinating when you mentioned it in your lecture last month."

Grinning widely, the man nodded his head in enthusiasm, "Oh, it is. Mr. Lupin, it is indeed." He made to move towards the cabinet in front of the class before he hesitated, glancing down at his watch.

"Unfortunately, I really must be going now. Have an appointment I absolutely can't miss," he rocked his weight towards the toes of his feet before nodding his head sharply and spinning towards the door. "Well, I trust you know what you're doing, right, Mr. Lupin? The bezoars are in the cabinet, please close the door on your way out."

"Of course, Professor!" Remus called as the door closed beside them, sitting unnervingly still for a whole minute before standing up.

"What the hell was that?" Sirius cried, finally shocked out of his temporary bout of paralysis. "What is this?" he gestured towards the acidic orange liquid. "And this?" he held up his blistering hand. "You did this? Why? Why would you do something like that to _my_ hand? Why not Peter? That's probably the best question. WHY NOT PETER?!"

By now, Remus had already made his way towards the front of the desk and seemed to be inspecting it, "Quiet for a minute, will you?" he asked as he took out his wand and ran it along the length of the desk a few times.

Stumped, Sirius did nothing but gape at him for a few moments, his mouth opening and closing in disbelief.

Tutting softly as he walked away from Slughorn's desk Remus pulled open the cabinet and sorted through the contents before turning back to Sirius.

"That purple potion was what Peter intended to submit as his next Potion assignment. I'm not sure what he was going for but it was pretty acidic when I borrowed it. I thought it'd be useful in distracting Slughorn and well, the idea came to me so suddenly. Here," he reached out for Sirius' hand.

"Oh no." Sirius cradled his burning hand as he eyed Remus' movements with great suspicion.

"What? It's an antidote," Remus explained as a small smile tugged at his lips, his hands outstretched, waiting for Sirius' compliance.

Grumbling darkly about 'mad mates', Sirius extended his hand towards Remus. "And don't you dare laugh."

"Wouldn't dream of it," the boy replied as he squeezed the cool, purplish liquid from a bezoar on Sirius' hand, massaging it gently into the skin, he watched as the blisters receded.

Finally soothed, Sirius stood and followed Remus as he walked back towards the desk, pausing in front of it before shaking his head and allowing his eyes to sweep the circumference of the room.

"You'd better be able to find that potion. Especially after all the trauma you put me through... I still don't understand, it's not like you couldn't _see_ Peter. Why not Peter?"

Remus, didn't even have the decency to look rightfully ashamed for choosing to include Sirius in any ploy of bodily harm, instead the boy didn't even appear to be listening.

"There." He said finally, nodding over Sirius' head.

Whipping his head around sharply, Sirius stared at what Remus was now making his way towards. "Who are you?" He followed the smaller boy down the staircase, "Who are you and what have you done with Remus. You remember him? Kind, clever Gryffindor. _Prefect_."

The boy apparently didn't seem to remember who this 'prefect' Sirius spoke of was, this became evident has he whipped out his wand and began muttering spells to break into Slughorn's personal quarters.

"It's like... Like, I don't even know who you are anymore. How comes you only get like this around me anyways?" Sirius walked up behind him and watched as he murmured rather complex sounding spells. "Let me."

Nudging him aside gently, Sirius took out a silver pin from beneath his ear. This pin had been one of his mother's and he remembered always wanting one like it as he watched her slip into closed doors at their 'friend's' dinner party prying until she left satisfied.

"Is that a Sesame?" Remus asked, staring at it in awe, "Where'd you get such a rare magical object?"

Raising a brow Sirius shot him a look before the boy colored slightly and looked away.

"Right," he muttered.

Laughing, Sirius shook his head as he pushed the door open and watched Remus hurry in without so much as the obligatory 'student trespassing into bounds that will surely result in a suspension if caught' pause.

"Seriously though, are you suffering from some sort of personality break?" Sirius asked as he watched the boy take out his wand and activate a locating spell, swiping his wand across the room.

"Cause, if so there must be something about me specifically that triggers it," Sirius had taken his own wand out and had the misfortunate of catching the eye of some rather terrified looking creatures trapped in small, steel cages on the floor.

"This is probably some psychological phenomenon that should be studied, at the very least you should talk to one of those Muggle doctors about it. See if they can't do something to stabilize you."

"Stabilize?" Remus finally spoke up as he flopped on the couch, his eyes scanning the corners of the room, "My behavior should be stabilized? When your lot has been running around the school doing more crazy stuff than every other delinquent combined? I'm sure you guys must have set a new record or something."

"I don't doubt we haven't," Sirius found his way beside the couch and started prodding the boy sharply between his ribs, "Up. We haven't time for a rest - But that doesn't change the fact that that's what's expected of us and we do the world a favor by behaving as expected of us, while you - what are you doing?"

Sirius was brought out of his rambling by the horrifying sight of Remus approaching a large, oak door that looked pointedly different from both the one they'd use to enter the classroom, and Slughorn's personal quarters. These doors looked like they led to his bedroom.

"It's here, I'm sure it is," Remus' eyes seemed to glow unnaturally bright as he turned towards Sirius. The light from the tip of his wand spilling on his triumphant grin. "Be right back."

Without so much as that hesitant pause Remus opened the door and slipped through.

"He's absolutely mad." Sirius whispered into the empty room as he stared unbelievably at the closed door.

Sirius circled the room before stopping at a cabinet that stood along the far wall of Slughorn's bedroom door. Swiping his eyes across the various vials, Sirius read off the names of numerous potions as he waited for Remus to reappear: 'Lair's Tangles', 'Snitches Warts', 'Bottled Lust.'

Brows raised at that last one, Sirius chanced a quick look at the door that Remus had disappeared behind before picking up a spare vial from a pile on Slughorn's coffee table and returning to the cabinet to pour a few drops into the vial.

"Professor Slughorn?"

Sirius' breath stopped completely as he heard the voice of a student above him, he paused, not moving a muscle and waited until he heard the sound of quiet footsteps and the door closing after a few asphyxiating minutes.

"Got it," Remus reemerged from Slughorn's bedroom taking care to close to the door behind him just as quietly as he'd entered.

"Finally! Let's get out of here before your personality break causes gets us expelled."

"Expelled?" Remus scrunched his nose in confusion before shaking his head, "They wouldn't throw me out. I'm one of the best in my year."

"What about me?" Sirius asked in an indignant manner. He was met with the blank stare of the smaller boy, his amber eyes looking on at him in something remarkably similar to pity before he walked towards the stairs.

"Let's go. Can't have them throwing you out of here. Who will entertain my personality breaks?"

Grumbling just as much as when he'd went in, Sirius exited the forbidden quarters taking care to lock the door behind them and closed the door of the Potions Master's class.

"Sirius?"

Shit.

Looking up the corridor, he saw his own shade of deep, grey eyes staring back at him in something akin to horror.

"What were you doing in Slughorn's room?" Regulus asked as he moved towards the duo, stopping when he faced them and glancing towards the door they'd just emerged from.

"We just had something we had to take care of after class," Remus replied without missing a beat. His book bag was slung over his shoulder and the way he looked over Regulus' head towards a painting of an apple tree made him appear almost bored.

"Were you now? Cause I was just in there and didn't see anyone. Where were you coming from?" Regulus' grey's eyes, Sirius' eyes, focused on Remus.

Sirius didn't need to ask to know what he was thinking, he was looking at the boy's tattered, second-hand robes, the worn fabric of his book-bag, possibly even the faded knees of his trousers. It was clear that Remus didn't come from a wealthy family, and the fact that neither Sirius nor Regulus recognized his last name, proved that his line wasn't pure.

This, Sirius knew, was all Regulus needed to judge him. To place him lower on the social hierarchy, and every other kind, because of his lineage.

"Sod off," Sirius growled darkly, taking a few hostile steps towards Regulus in an effort to ward off any abuse he could throw at Remus.

Growing just as angry, if not a bit slower, Regulus' lip curled in an unpleasant way before narrowing his cold, grey eyes at him, "Careful brother. I know mother wouldn't be pleased to find you sneaking around the castle in such company."

"Think I could get her to roll in her grave?" Sirius shot back acidly, his body growing tense, as he plunged his hand into his robes.

Regulus mirrored his movement and both brothers faced each other with tense expressions, eyes only slipping from each other as Remus moved between them.

"Well," he said facing Sirius, "I'm off for lunch. I'll need all my strength for the Potions assignment tonight," he said pointedly before nodding in Regulus' direction and disappearing down the corridor.

Eyeing him, Regulus waited until he was out of eyeshot before shaking his head slowly at Sirius. "Really, Sirius? Where'd you get that one from?"

"He's in Gryffindor and he's in my year," Sirius said defensively, leaning against the wall as he stared at his brother. The boy seemed much less hostile now that Remus had left and Sirius assumed that he had wanted to project something of the 'power' and 'nobility' of the Black house.

"So's Potter. What happened to him? I mean, blood traitor yes, but at least he's got the blood." "James is fine," Sirius grounded out irritably.

"And even that Pettigrew idiot, he's got some bad strands in his family but once you weed those out-"

"Weed them out? They're people, not dandelions, you prick." Sirius snapped, finally at the end of his leash with the conversation. He had noticed that increasingly, his patience with his younger brother was wearing thin. He usually just hated when Regulus tried to display the 'nobility' (or arrogance, as Sirius was sure most people called it), of the Black house in front of other's, but now the boy sounded like he actually believed in the crap that was being feed to him.

"And speaking of friends, I've noticed you around Rosier and that lot," Sirius began.

"What of it?" Regulus asked, crossing his hands against his chest, "Dad brought me round their house in the summer, while you were still locked in your room being feed through the cracks in the bar, I was actually allowed out."

"Yeah," Sirius said a fond smile gracing his lips at the memory of the three weeks without contact from his family; James and Peter had kept him entertained with a steady supply of Quidditch magazines, "One of the best summers of my life."

"You're mad," Regulus said shaking his head as he looked towards the direction Remus had left in, "I'm not sure what you're doing with him. I don't know if this is some kind of prank or something -"

Something within Sirius clenched at the proximity with which Regulus had nailed him.

"- but hurry it up. You don't need Mom and Dad finding out about a friendship like that. You're already on thin ice." Regulus said this a lot softer than he had everything else and looked up at Sirius with an open, almost worried expression, the kind they used to share before - before everything had happened.

"Don't worry," Sirius said throwing a rather weak smile down at him, "I know what I'm doing. It'll be fine." Pausing for a moment, he nodded once more at the younger boy before throwing his book-bag over his shoulder and walking towards the direction of the Great Hall.

* * *

"That was such a great game!" Sirius cried throwing his hands behind his head as he lead the way down the stands.

The first week of December had rolled in with light flurries of snow and a new Quidditch match for the month, Hufflepuff verses Ravenclaw.

"Yeah, the Ravenclaw chasers are really strong. But I think our Keeper can handle Lexis' right hook," James said almost to himself as he took large strides back to the castle.

"Yeah, I think we can definitely take them," Peter added, huffing slightly as his short legs moved quickly to keep up with James.

Sirius wasn't sure who exactly Peter was referring to when he said '_we_,' after all the only person within their group of friends who was on the Gryffindor Quidditch team was James. While Peter attended every practice religiously, squealing compliments from the stands, Sirius was almost sure that the Captain had not decided to add an eighth member.

James made no comment on Peter's intrusion on his Quidditch team but instead sped up trying to get inside as quickly as possible.

"Amlise played well today," Sirius said, tugging his cloak closely around himself as he slowed even more to remain by Remus' side. The boy's cloak was no thicker than his but he didn't seem to be in a huge rush to get inside.

Instead, he clutched his scarf loosely in his hand, twirling one end while scanning the steadily rapidly growing crowd shuffling into the warmth of the castle.

"She was." Remus had turned his large, amber eyes on Sirius and smiled warmly as finally he picked up his pace and hastened towards the large doors framing the castle walls.

"Too bad for Hufflepuff." Sirius didn't bother trying to keep the glee from his voice, he didn't think he could if he'd tried in all honesty so why bother?

"They played well too," Remus said shrugging slightly as he stomped his feet a few times on the large, now soaking wet, mat outside the Great Hall.

Sirius copied his motions, although he thought it was absolutely futile, Filch insisted on harassing anyone who 'tracked in all the muck from outside', bloody menace that man was.

"Remus!"

Turning sharply Sirius was more than a little annoyed to see McDonald standing at the sides of the Great Hall, hair still damp from the flurries of snow that had collected during his game, and his uniform clinging almost indecently to his frame.

What was he doing guarding the Great Hall, didn't that constitute as stalking or something? Had this boy no shame?

Frowning, Sirius tried to think of one good reason to drag Remus away from the doors of the hall but before he get very far, Remus stepped away from him, turning to look at him with something akin to panic.

"I'll just be a minute."

Sirius didn't move and instead stared down at the smaller boy, "I'll wait."

Shaking his head, Remus' hands flew to his scarf again as he played with the frayed ends. "No, James and Peter are probably waiting for you now. They should be working on that potion assignment."

Remus' brow had arched slightly at the words 'potions assignment' and his eyes had slipped away from Sirius' to glance around them quickly. This was the smaller boy's code for 'dangerous potion that is being brewed with intentions of poisoning the Slytherin Quidditch team for crimes of social injustice.'

Sirius was trying to think of a way to point out to Remus how creepy it was for McDonald to be stalking one of the only sources of food in the school, when the blonde boy approached them.

Remus' head swirled sharply when he felt the Hufflepuff clasp his shoulder and took a few steps back hesitantly.

"See you later," he said shooting Sirius one last smile before tugging at McDonald's sleeve and steering him away from Sirius.

Sneering Sirius threw a parting venomous look in the blonde's direction hoping he could convey the message of 'Don't touch him.'

Judging by the way McDonald's hand reached down to hold Remus' in his own as he smiled back at Sirius, Sirius couldn't help but think that the boy had gotten his message and had sent back a rude gesture in return.

Grumbling angrily all the way up the staircase Sirius managed to bump into four Slytherins and pushed one Fifth year boy down the last few steps of stairs before he felt slightly better.

Making his way to the Boy's Sixth Floor washroom, Sirius ignored the 'Out of Order' sign before pushing it open and headed down the further cubicle.

Remus had been the one to suggest this as a suitable place to brew the potion, 'No one ever patrolled this washroom' he insisted. They had even found a passage that led from one of the front cubicles all the way up to the Seventh Floor which had come in extremely handy on the nights they'd sworn they heard the meow of Mrs. Norris outside the door.

"What happened to Lupin?" James asked looking up at Sirius as he stirred the potion thrice clockwise and once counterclockwise.

"Ran off with McDonald," Sirius muttered darkly collapsing onto the space beside James.

Peter sat on the farthest corner of the area, craning his neck to see the continents of the potion.

"Don't you dare," James warned, glowering as Peter made to move towards the newt spleen. "I won't have you messing up this potion. You're terrible at reading instructions and I won't run the risk of you contaminating the potion with chocolate." His hazel eyes dropped down to the brown stains on Peter's fingers before the boy glowed pink and plucked them into his mouth.

Turning away in disgust James handed Sirius the cutting board and newt spleen. "Maybe you should just give up?" The hopefulness in his voice did not go unnoticed by Sirius.

Shooting him a look of disbelief Sirius bared his teeth angrily before cutting the spleen with more force than strictly necessary, "McDonald's just so annoying, he's always there. Wish he'd just disappear."

James sighed softly before nodding and allowing Sirius to spend the next four minutes describing in colorful imagery the accident he'd hope would happen to Justin on the pitch.

"Wish I could just spike his pumpkin juice or something," Sirius grumbled eyeing the brewing potion hopefully before shaking his head.

"Didn't you take something from Slughorn's office?" James asked, pouring the spleen into the mixture and watching carefully for change.

"Yeah, something called 'Bottled Lust,' sounded useful at the time," Sirius crushed the bat wings on the wooden board in his lap, concentrating on grinding the bits properly. "But I definitely don't want McDonald lusting after me."

"Not you," James' hazel eyes had began to shine again. After checking the potion to ensure that nothing unexpectedly brilliant had happened, Sirius could only deduce that James' manic gleam was meant for him.

"Mix it with one of Remus' hair or something and give it to McDonald."

"Have you lost your mind?" Sirius frowned shaking his head, "I don't need to give McDonald any _more_ reason to touch him. In fact I'm trying get that sleek git away from him."

Laughing, James took the board from him and began sprinkling it over the cauldron, letting the dust fall in the mixture in circular motions.

"No, no think about it. Remus - he - well, he doesn't quite seem normal does he?"

Sighing, Sirius hoped that they weren't going to have yet another conversation about how annoyingly wet Remus was, no matter how often Sirius regaled James with the tales of Remus' daring acts of larceny the boy simply refused to believe him.

"I mean, he's a boy. But he's all... I don't know... He's kinda feminine."

Staring at the way the potion seemed to swell before settling down within the cauldron with a small _hiss_, Sirius had to agree with his point. Although Remus was quite obviously a boy, there was a feminine quality about him.

This only really became obvious when Sirius had the misfortunate of seeing him and McDonald together. McDonald was usually always towering over him and seemed to never run out of reasons to touch him.

Sirius had never seen Remus initiate any of these touches but noticed how anxious the boy always got whenever McDonald brushed against him, it kind of reminded Sirius of the nervousness that girls usually had on first dates with him.

"Yeah, I think I know what you mean," he replied at length.

"He even kind of looks feminine," Peter interjected, smiling from his position as the length of something bright green stuck out from his mouth.

"He doesn't look feminine, just... I dunno... Maybe delicate?" The word Sirius wanted to use was 'soft.' Everything about Remus looked soft. From his light brown- golden blonde hair, to his ivory, scarred skin the boy just seemed like, well, like he'd be something nice to touch.

Sirius didn't touch him much, he could probably count the times when his skin had brushed against the smaller boy's on one hand, but he remembered having enjoyed it immensely each time.

"Well, just think of things that girls don't like guys doing," James said gathering up the bounded pile of parchment at his feet, the real copy of 'Most Potente Potions' had been returned to the library on a late night similar to the one that they'd taken it.

Staring blankly at him, Sirius blinked a few times before James stood and rolled his eyes in annoyance, "Girls don't like it when guys get too touchy too soon. Put the potion in the guy's pumpkin juice or whatever and when he starts pawing at Remus, he'll probably get angry at him."

This was a pretty good plan, Sirius thought. After all, Remus didn't seem like the type to be particularly fond of sudden contact, he had never seen the two share anything more than a few touches in the hall, it wasn't unreasonable to assume that Remus wasn't overly comfortable with that type of thing yet.

Nodding, Sirius smiled as he thumped James on the back, holding the cubicle door open for Peter before turning to lock it. "That's brilliant, I'll do that."

"You should try and do it tonight. At the Quidditch after party," Peter suggested washing his hands in one of the working sinks.

Peter was talking about the party that the Ravenclaws would be throwing in the South wing of the castle, this was usually the place where the winning team of the Quidditch match would gather and blast loud, vulgar music until the fear of being caught sent students back to their Common Room.

"You're going to the Quidditch after party?"

Remus had entered the washroom and as he walking up the sinks he smiled at Sirius through the mirror.

"Of course! Do you think I'd miss something like that?" Sirius said turning to face him, "You're going too, right?"

"Yeah, probably." Remus answered not meeting Sirius' eyes and suddenly, Sirius had a good idea who Remus was planning on going with.

* * *

Holding a bottle of Firewhiskey tightly in his grasp Sirius growled as once again, McDonald flicked his stupid hair out of his eyes and reached down to touch Remus' shoulder.

"Better find a way to give it to him," James muttered before catching sight of a twirl of red hair and turning away from him with a cry of 'Hey Evans!'

Sirius waited for another seven minutes brushing off the advances of three girls before he was able to make his move.

McDonald had laid down his bottle of Firewhiskey on the table closest where the two were leaning against the wall and walked away from Remus with a nod of his head.

Sirius reckoned that the boy was probably was going to the bathroom, and he that had five maybe eight minute before McDonald came back and re-glued himself to Remus' side.

"Hey," Sirius said sliding against the spot that McDonald just had vacated.

Remus' eyes sparkled over the top of his Butterbeer as he asked, "Having a good time?"

"How could I not? Look at the mischief, at the rebellion, I'm pretty sure this is my favorite part of the Quidditch season."

At that moment one of the Prewett twins, Sirius was almost sure it was Fabian by the short wand clutched in his hand, shot a spell at the ceiling of the room and it exploded into a flurry of colorful of light and smoke.

Laughing at the cheers that erupted from the sight Remus turned to nod in Fabian's direction. It was then that Sirius noticed that beside the twin, stood Amlise and Romulus, their wands out and twirling playfully in their hands.

Taking the opportunity of Remus' turned back, Sirius grabbed Justin's bottle from the table and turned towards the wall, pouring the contents of the vial into the bottle.

Returning the bottle to the table he recaptured Remus' attention, "Do you want some?" He asked holing up his own bottle of Firewhiskey.

"No, I don't really like the taste," Remus said before his eyes fell on something behind Sirius and shot him an almost sheepish look.

Somehow knowing the problem Sirius turned to see Justin entering through the heavy doors of the large space and begin navigating his way through the crowd towards them.

"Well I'll see you later," Sirius said learning forward to clasp Remus gently on the shoulder and enjoying the spread of color that dashed across his cheeks.

Settling down on a couch in a far corner of the room Sirius was quickly dragged into a conversation with the other twin, Gideon, he could confirm seeing the almost trademark way the boy's wand stuck out from behind his ear.

"Did you do it?" James asked as he'd flopped down beside him sporting a rather nasty bruise on the side of his face.

"Yup," Sirius swiped his own wand across the mark, watching in some fascination as the bruise seem to shimmer before growing slightly more purple. "Wow, that Lily sure can pack a punch."

Muttering, James shook his head as he allowed Sirius to attempt a more complex spell to heal his face, "Hope, he doesn't notice that his pumpkin juice tastes any different."

"Naw, I put it in his Firewhiskey. It taste so strong, I doubt he'll be able to tell the difference."

"What?!" James jerked away from Sirius' spell roughly and turned to stare at him with wide eyes, "You're not suppose to mix it with alcohol. It'll quantify it's magic."

Sirius paled severely before turning to look at where Remus and McDonald had been standing. His heart almost stopped when he realized that they were both gone.

* * *

I'm beaming happily at everyone who took the time to read my latest chapter... so you know.


	6. Chapter 6: A Painful Realization

**Disclaimer**: Here's my disclaimer where I tell you that no matter the vivid fantasties that exist in my head, I'm not J. K. Rowling.

Ughh... It took me a month to update... again. I'm going to aim for bi-weekly instead of weekly cause at least that seems more doable.

Oh.. And I just found out about the 'expand' feature on fanfiction (don't judge I'm new, remember?). I hope everyone's using it for my story. I dunno how to apply it myself or even if that's possible but I'm sure it'll be a lot easier to read if you adjust your settings so that the sentences are more spaced out.

* * *

**Chapter Six: A Painful Realization**

* * *

Justin's hands were warm in Remus' as he led the smaller boy down a deserted corridor, pausing for a second to peer round the next passage Justin grinned back at him, "I doubt anyone will get caught tonight. I'm pretty sure I saw all the prefects at that party."

Nodding Remus smiled at him before dropping his eyes down to their intertwined hands. Increasingly the blonde had become a lot more affectionate with him he always seemed to be brushing against his arm or touching his shoulder.

But no matter how many times he did it Remus could never seem stop the flood of color that rushed across his face or ignore the nervousness he felt pool in his stomach.

"This way."

The blonde's hand squeezed his own softly before pulling him gently up a flight of stairs.

Suddenly realizing where they were Remus paused on the stairs chewing on his bottom lip softly as he leaned against the smooth stone wall.

"What's wrong?" Justin asked frowning slightly as he squinted down at him. Remus found himself glad that Justin's eyesight was limited to human capabilities, he certainty didn't want him seeing the timid look he was sure decorated his face.

"Well... Errr... This is the South Astronomy Tower," Remus stated lamely as he moved even closer to the wall trying to shrink into the shadows despite knowing that Justin couldn't see him well enough to make out his expression.

"Yeah, it's one of the best in the school. You've seen it, right?"

Remus wasn't exactly sure how to answer the question. Of course he'd seen the tower before, he doubted that there was any part of the castle that he hadn't discovered by now, he even remembered having quite enjoyed the view the last time he'd visited.

However Remus knew that the view wasn't what drew most students to this fairly remote tower.

The South Astronomy tower was mainly used by the senior students who had completed their O.W.L.s and wished to continue their studies in the subject. This tower was strategically positioned at the back of the castle to allow for the view of both the major constellations and the smaller clusters that weren't visible from the Northern towers and too difficult for younger students to interpret.

The room used for viewing the stars was itself quite beautiful. The stairs led up to an open space sparsely furnished with comfortable-looking mixed patterned couches and love seats with the occasional coffee table stationed between them. The top of the space was covered by a glass dome that allowed the students access to all the stars.

As comfortable and pleasant as the room was it was extremely popular among older students. The majority of these students didn't continue with Astronomy nor had they had interest in mapping the movement of Ursa Major or Minor. Instead they were drawn to the area due to its largely romantic aspect.

Remus had heard quite a few tales of people being deflowered in the tower under the glow of the stars and the comfort the furniture provided and he had certainly not been there for that reason.

"Just during the day," he replied hoping the boy understood his hesitation for what it was.

"Well, come on it's beautiful at night," Justin said squeezing his hand again before pulling him away from the wall and up the stairs.

Reaching the landing of the tower Remus had to admit that the sight was beautiful. If he hadn't known that the glass dome was what sheltered the space, he would've sworn it was open to the night sky. The stars glowed brightly down at them and not even snow could be seen collecting on the surface of the glass that separated them from the cold winter night.

Twitching slightly he allowed Justin to lead him to a rather worn love seat in the corner of the room and after forcing himself not to think about who else may have been there before him and what they were doing, sat down beside him.

"Cetus," Justin said after a moment. He had leaned his head to rest against the back of the couch and his eyes focused on the small star above that he had named.

"Draco," Remus added eyeing the vigorously glowing ball of light positioned some distance from Cetus.

"Crux."

Relaxing into the couch Remus continued the game calling off the stars that were in his central vision.

This wasn't so bad, he thought. The view was wonderful and the couches were comfortable and Justin was a gentleman. Clearly he'd overreacted about the prospect of so much as being up in the space with the blonde, Justin was nothing if not kind.

Between the softly murmured 'Hydra' and 'Grus' Justin's right hand had slipped down to his knee and after he called 'Gemini' began to make short trips up to the middle of Remus' thigh and back down towards his knee.

Staring down at the roaming hand Remus fumbled the rhythm of their game before he was able to draw his eyes back towards the dome. "Pictor," he called before glancing back down at the hand.

Justin, if possible, seemed to become even more relaxed and melted into the couch bonelessly as his left leg rested on a table before them.

The room fell silent for a moment as Justin' eyes closed and Remus would've thought that the boy had fallen asleep if not for the hand that continued its journey up his leg inching closer to his thigh.

Jumping slightly Remus reached down and grabbed Justin's hand, which had ventured dangerously close to his inner thigh, in both his hands while pressing his lips together tightly.

Chuckling softly Justin opened his eyes as he titled his head to look down at Remus. "Alright?" he asked mouthed curled pleasantly into a smile.

Worried that he'd sound absolutely ridiculous if he tried to speak at the moment Remus nodded before releasing his grip on the boy's hand opting to hold it gently in one hand.

"It really is beautiful up here," Remus said trying to break the silence that he was almost sure only he found uncomfortable, "Thanks for showing it to me."

He swung his legs out before him a few times in hopes that the boy would get his hint that he wanted to move on.

"Of course," Justin replied. His green eyes focused on the smaller boy as he seemed to inch closer, "I can't believe no one ever's taken you up here before."

Flushing deeply Remus stared ahead of him watching the glow of Virgo before replying, "Well you're the first person I've ever really hung out with."

Remus wasn't sure what his relationship with the older boy was, after the disaster that had been their first date in Hogsmeade they hadn't come close to kissing again. Although Justin was still just as sweet, he walked him back to his dorm after the study group and always approached him in the halls, they hadn't really found the right time to try again.

"Good. I like the idea of being your first," Justin said smiling down at him before his eyes dropped from Remus' to scan his body.

Once again falling silent Remus flushed even deeper. What was he supposed to say to that? Was he suppose to say anything at all?

He didn't have long to ponder the new wave of confusion that Justin's word stirred because the boy had turned his body to his.

Leaning close to him Justin's lips brushed against his ear before whispering, "Bet no one's ever told you how gorgeous you are."

Shivering at the proximity of the boy Remus stayed silent, looked down at their intertwined hands. He wasn't exactly sure what he was supposed to do or say in situations like this and couldn't help feeling clumsily and awkward.

After a moment of drawn out silent where Justin breathed heavily in his ear, he continued, "You are."

Justin's lips had found themselves on his cheek and he began brushing feather light kisses on his cheeks dropping lower with every touch.

When he reached Remus' lips the boy finally looked up at his blonde companion, blushing at the hungry look that flashed in Justin's eye before he dipped down to capture his lips.

Justin's lips were soft against Remus' as he moved slowly, pressing them gently against the younger boy's before applying more pressure and dipped down to nibble on his still lower lip.

Gasping more in shock than embarrassment Remus opened his mouth and Justin's tongue darted in with no more permission exploring him thoroughly.

Justin's kiss was overwhelming, he moved quickly and intensely always seeming to change his pressure or angle just when Remus thought he'd be able to relax into in.

After a few moments where Justin's arms had wound themselves completely around Remus' waist, the smaller boy pulled back hesitantly face red as he inhaled deeply.

He had been struggling to come up with the right words to say to Justin before this and now he was completely stumped and settled for biting his lip as he allowed his hair to fall onto his reddened face. "Absolutely gorgeous," Justin repeated before he pushed his chest against Remus' and forced the younger boy's back into the couch.

Now completely on top of him Justin's hands moved towards Remus' wrists pulling it above his head as he pressed his body fully against him.

"Justin slow down," Remus managed to mutter before Justin reached down and silenced him by pressing his lips to his.

By now Justin's hands were beginning to roam with frightening intensity all over Remus' body. They slipped down his arms, reached up towards his chest applying a small amount of pressure to Remus' nipples which had the boy shutter and shake underneath him before dropping even lower.

It was when Justin's left hand reached around to squeeze Remus' ass that the boy jerked himself free from his bruising kisses.

"Justin. Stop," he whined pitifully cheeks embarrassingly red. He wasn't sure how normal people stopped or even slowed things like this but the way Justin's hands were suddenly all over him made him feel extremely uncomfortable.

"But you're so fucking gorgeous," Justin replied before burying his face into the boy's neck nibbling and sucking his skin feverishly.

Loud gasps and pitiful cries slipped from Remus as he struggled to get his bearings. Finally with both hands on Justin's chest he tried to push the older boy away again, "Justin please stop. I don't -"

Justin's hands finally moved away from where they were tracing the contours of Remus' ass but to the smaller boys' horror they hooked underneath his shirt and began tugging it upwards.

"What are you doing? Stop!"

Justin had finally moved his weight off of Remus in an attempt to work his shirt over his head and as he balanced against his ankles with his grip tight on Remus' shirt, Remus bolted up quickly trying to knock him far away enough to give himself the chance to run.

Remus only made it a few steps before Justin sprung up and grabbed his forearm roughly tugging sharply he sent the younger boy crashing down into the closest coffee table.

"Stay still," Justin grunted out as he straddled Remus' waist finally succeeding in pulling the younger boy's shirt over his head, pausing to remove his own shirt with feline agility.

Remus cried out in pain trying to move away from the coffee table he'd hit but could only wiggle weakly as Justin's weight restricted him.

The pounding on the side of his head from his crash with the coffee table was the least of his problems, he was having a silver reaction. Eyes darting wildly around Remus was able to make out the malicious glint of the face of a compass, a very expensive, solid silver compass.

He wondered how distracted he must've been to not notice the little device earlier, but really how could he have known? He usually didn't need to be excessively cautious with small amounts of silver after all they were usually fairly easy to avoid.

And now Remus could do nothing but stare up in horror at Justin. What had happened to the kind, fun-loving Hufflepuff? To the blonde who looked like he wouldn't hurt a fly?

Justin leaned over him again both hands positioned on either sides of his head before shifting his body so his lower abdomen pressed against Remus' stomach.

Unsure of whether he was feeling more shocked or horrified at the hard blunge he felt through the boy's pants, the gravity of his situation dawned upon him as Justin shifted again pressing himself against Remus.

"Justin. Please. Stop. Please," Remus felt like crying at how weak and pathetic he sounded. The color that had prettily stained his cheeks earlier was gone and the feeling in his stomach replaced with fear and horror.

The boy paid him no mind but leaned down to start sucking on Remus' neck rolling his hips to thrust himself against Remus' stomach in slow, leisurely movements.

Remus shook as he desperately hoped that the boy would bring himself to completion soon. All he wanted was to get out from underneath him and roll into bed. He'd wonder how he ever thought Justin was sweet or kind and blame himself for putting himself in a vulnerable position at some other time, tonight he'd curl up as far as he could get into his sheets and struggle to find sleep.

As he was trying to focus on anything but the writhing boy on top of him, Remus turned his head to look outside the glass dome and found a star directly above him. He tried to focus on this intensely bright star even as Justin's thrusts became so rough that he scrapped his body against the stone floor.

Remus almost cried out in happiness when Justin's mild thrusts stopped before his heart dropped painfully when the boy's hands moved to his belt.

"Justin. Get off me, Justin! No!" Remus began struggling again trying to get the boy off him cursing the tiny, silver compass that seemed to be taking so much of his strength.

His body tensed at the sudden cold air when Justin roughly pushed his trousers down past his hips, hands moving to cup Remus' cheeks greedily.

Crying aloud Remus bolted up once again and was shaken when Justin grabbed both his shoulders and slammed him into the stone floor making his head spin before he could register that Justin had fully tugged off his pants.

Kneeling before him Justin spread his thighs as he stared hungrily at his now naked body.

Remus was unable to move as the boy's weight landed on top of him and whimpered loudly when his felt Justin's cold fingers reach down to his entrance.

"Stupefy!"

Justin's weight was blasted off Remus and he bolted up staring down at the older boy's limp body as he shook violently.

"Are you okay?"

Sirius had collapsed beside him pulling him into his chest as his breathe fanned across the top of Remus' head, "I'm so sorry," he repeated over and over again.

Remus was sure he should've felt disgusted and possibly horrified, he probably shouldn't have wanted Sirius anywhere near him right now. But he was tired and weak and felt utterly humiliated so he leaned into the comfort the boy offered, moulding his body as close as it could get.

Remus didn't know how long he stayed there huddled in Sirius' arms but eventually he realized the shaking that rocked both boys wasn't only coming from him and the beating rhythm that pounded in his ear was not just a product of his own desperate heart.

Pulling away slowly, Remus swiped at his eyes trying to maintain some dignity before realizing that he was completely naked and quite literally situated on Sirius' lap.

"Sorry," he mumbled gruffly dropping his hands in an effort to cover his scarred body as best he could while avoiding Sirius' eyes.

He absolutely hated that Sirius had to see him like this. Not only was he in a completely humiliating and pathetic position but his disfigured, scarred body was now openly displayed for his handsome dormmate to see.

Sirius was silent for a moment but before Remus could begin wishing for an early death a thick bundle of fabric was dropped into his lap.

"I think your's is ripped," Sirius said simply. He'd moved to pick up Remus' discarded jumper and when he held it up Remus could see a rip from the neckline to the chest.

Gratefully pulling on Sirius' dark maroon jumper he was engulfed by the material and stood, pleased that it landed low enough to offer him some decency.

Pulling on his pants that Sirius had retrieved for him, Remus stood staring down at Justin blankly.

"Think we should kick him around a bit for good measure?" Sirius asked meekly as he tapped the bottom of Justin's shoe with his boot.

Remus shook his head still watching the unconscious boy. Knocked out and completely motionless Justin looked harmless and kind, like the boy that Remus had always assumed he was. What had gone wrong this night? Had he done something to cause this?

As if trying to forcibly shake these thoughts from his head he shook his head until he noticed that Sirius had began to look at him in concern.

"We should probably move him," Remus suggested finally as he eyed the boy's sprawled out limbs focusing on his left arm which seemed to be bent at a strange angle.

Sirius made an angry sound from the back of his throat but after running his hand through his hair a few times pulling roughly at his ends he took out his wand and levitated the boy onto the couch.

"That good?"

It probably wasn't the best job that could've been done. The majority of the boy's body was situated on the couch but his neck was propped up in a way which Remus was sure would cause neck pains in the morning.

One look at Sirius' disgruntled face told Remus that this was all that could be expected of his dorm-mate and he wondered if Sirius' flickering eyes to the glass dome didn't indicate that he'd much rather have Justin sleep outside tonight.

"I- I think I'll go back to the dorm," Remus said finally turning away from the unconscious boy and heading down the stairs. He couldn't be sure what he looked like now but he knew that his brother only needed one look at him to know that something had happened and the absolute last thing he wanted was to have Romulus know anything about this.

"Alright, let's go."

The two boys walked back to the Common Room in silence. Remus' mind seemed to be running at a million words per minute but he couldn't think of one to say to the black haired teen. What did Sirius think of him now?

After both boys had changed into their pajamas, Remus still wearing Sirius' maroon sweater, they stood awkwardly in front of Remus' bed not looking at each other but knowing that something had to be said.

"Thank you," came Remus' soft voice as he slipped into bed. He had finally looked at Sirius and was pleased to see that the boy didn't look disgusted or angry at him, if anything he seemed a bit sheepish as he shifted around with his hands dung deep into his pockets.

"I still can't believe it to be honest. He was so nice," Remus said weakly biting his lip as he pulled his covers closer to his chest.

"Yeah... Well Remus listen. His firewhiskey -"

"Firewhiskey? You're right. He was drinking, do you think that's why?" Remus was sure he sounded pathetically hopeful but he needed a reason, he wanted to know why Justin had turned on him like that, he wanted to know it wasn't his fault.

"Actually, I know it was. His firewhiskey -"

"Yeah, that's why. It was the alcohol," Remus looked up at the boy with wide eyes, "I always remember my mom warning me about people who drunk excessively said they were dangerous. And Justin had a few last night."

Sirius shot him an almost pained look before he nodded and sat down at the edge of the bed. "I'm sure that's what it was. I've heard and seen people acting like complete prats when they're wasted. Had to stop Peter from jumping off the Battlements the other month, poor bloke was convinced that he had perfected a full body levitation charm."

Nodding Remus smiled before laying down and staring up at Sirius with wide, moist eyes, "I'm just happy it wasn't me," he said so quietly he wasn't that Sirius even heard him at first. Sirius seemed to pause before he moved to collapse on top of him drawing him into another breathless embrace.

"No don't think that. It wasn't your fault at all," Sirius whispered gently as he made to pull away.

Clasping onto his arm Remus shook his head muttering, "Don't go" before realizing what he was saying. Pulling away slowly Remus flushed in embarrassed as he played with the sleeves of Sirius' jumper, "I - I mean... I didn't mean it in a weird way, I know you're not - not like..."

"Like what?" Sirius asked before pulling back his covers and slipping into the space beside him.

Deciding that he'd spent too far too much time fumbling over his words that day Remus shook his head before scouting over to give Sirius more room.

Both boys laid in the relative silence of the room, the soft light of the lantern on the opposite side of the room throwing their faces in shadows as Remus looked at Sirius who'd closed his eyes.

How close could he get? How close was considered normal before Sirius would bolt up from the bed and accuse him of trying to get off with him or something?

Shifting a bit closer to the resting boy Remus paused before moving a bit closer, should he try to get any closer?

He almost squeaked when Sirius' grey eyes opened to meet his and before he could retreat the boy's arm hooked around his waist and pulled him into his chest.

Resting comfortably there Remus buried his face into the crook of Sirius' neck finding that all this thoughts about that evening, about Justin, and what would happen tomorrow finally stopped.

Neither boys spoke but as Remus could feel his body growing heavy with sleep a distant noise drew his attention to the window beside his bed and he caught sight of the burning ball of light that had distracted him during Justin's attack.

As darkness came to him he smiled and called out the star.

"Sirius."

* * *

Stupid Peter Remus thought rather maliciously.

He supposed it was his own fault. Peter had been eyeing the Ravenclaw who'd called him 'tummy' with small, hateful eyes and it wasn't as if he hadn't seen James whispering eagerly into the blonde's ear. Remus probably should've stopped them or else suggested a quieter jinx. Alas, it was done now and both Peter and James had earned themselves a detention for the night.

The very night of the study group. Leaving Remus sitting ridiculously still as he tried to fade into the background of shelves upon shelves of books as a fellow Fifth droned on and on about the Herbology assignment.

Eyes dropping down to his watch he slowly began to gather his belongings hoping that maybe he could make it out without being caught.

"Okay. See you all next week,' Lily was saying when Remus finally refocused and he watched in silent horror as the members of his study group got up and started filing out of the library.

Grabbing his bookbag and trying to stuff his belongings into his bag almost desperately he visibly slumped as he heard his name being called.

"Yes Justin?"

The blonde stood awkwardly behind him, bag thrown over his shoulder as he kept a relatively large distance in between them.

"Do you think we can talk?"

"You mean like what we're doing now?" Remus couldn't help bite out and almost brought himself to regret it as a look of misery crossed the older boy's face.

"Yeah we can talk," he added after some time. This Justin standing in front of him, timid and apologetic was the Justin that he knew, the one that he'd liked.

"I don't even know what to say... how to apologize," Justin had moved closer and although he didn't touch Remus his eyes had flickered down to his hand resting on the table before meeting his eyes.

"I can't remember everything.. only bits and pieces. But what I see -" Justin broke off as he shook his head his right hand reaching up to rub his forehead before he continued, "I can't believe I - I would never have done that to you, I don't know why I did..."

"It was probably the Firewhiskey," Remus muttered. Seeing Justin like this... broken and so clearly confused hurt him and even though he definitely didn't want the boy around him anymore he didn't want him to be hurting.

The boy had looked up at him with something close to relief in his eyes, "You mean you're - you - you don't hate me?"

Remus said nothing, instead swinging his bag over his shoulder he turned away from him, "Let's just forget about it, okay? I just don't wanna talk about it."

As scared and humiliated as he'd been he didn't think that having some emotional, long drawn out conversation with Justin would help matters. He could accept that Justin gotten too drunk and uncontrollable and he was sure that eventually he'd forget the way his hands felt as they groped him greedily... But now he just wanted to keep as far away from him as he could.

Justin's shoulders fell in relief and he took a hasty step towards Remus before throwing his arms around him. "Thank you. Thank you so much," he muttered into his ear.

Standing rigidly Remus patted the boy's back in awkward intervals until Justin seemed to sense his discomfort and pulled away.

"Do you think we can start over?" he asked as leaned on his right leg, his weight balancing heavily to one side before he alternated feet.

"Maybe..." Remus said and after a moment of heavy silence he continued, "Probably. I just need some time."

Nodding Justin gave him a small smile and took a deep breathe and when his shoulder fell, Remus noticed that they'd lost the gracefulness that they usually held.

Both boys walked out of the library and after nodding in Madam Pince's direction Justin said, "Guess I'll ughh... see you later?"

"Yeah..." Remus said simply. He shrugged his shoulders and thought that he should say something - maybe something to reassure the boy that they'd be alright eventually or that he wouldn't feel this way forever. But nothing to came to him and as they opened the door Remus found he'd missed his chance.

Sirius was leaning against the wall in front of the library, his expression blank as he took in Justin's presence.

"Bye Justin," Remus said quietly as he moved towards Sirius.

"Alright," he replied before nodding in Sirius' direction and disappearing down the corridor.

Sirius' face remained blank as he looked down on Remus, "You and him back on?"

This was new. Although Remus was sure that Sirius more or less understood the relationship between him and Justin the two had never actually spoke about it.

"Errr... He was just trying apologizing for the other night," Remus said as he followed Sirius down the corridor, he was about to make a right turn towards the stairs that would lead them up to the Common Room but found Sirius steering him towards the left.

"Let's take a walk before we head back." Sirius' eyes held a troubling shine that Remus had quickly learned to associate with impending deviance.

Finding that he was almost excited to discover what rules they were about to break he gave the boy an affirmative nod and they began a descend through the castle.

Remus effectively managed to steer the conversation away from him and Justin's shaky relationship and towards the Hair-Snakes Potions that they were brewing.

"Almost ready. James and Peter managed to get the Moonseed and Ptolemy from Hogsmeade so the potion should be ready in another week," Sirius said proudly. He grew quiet and Remus could tell by the smirk that grew on his face that he was fantasizing about when he could poison the unsuspecting, but not undeserving, Slytherins.

Remus said nothing humming in what he was sure Sirius would perceive to be a pleased sound, he'd firmly decided against questioning how Peter and James could've possibly gone to Hogsmeade in the last few days when the next scheduled trip wasn't for three weeks.

Coming to a stop in front of a black lined door that look strikingly similar to the one that he knew adorned Filch's office Remus peered down both ends of the corridor hoping against all hope that he was mistaken.

Sirius shot him an overly pleased, almost crazed look before pulling his wand from his robes and Remus felt his heart noticeably drop, he looked around expecting the floor to be splattered with blood and when he found it pointedly spotless assumed that his stomach had somehow managed to catch it.

"Why are you giving me that look? This is gonna be brilliant," Sirius said in what was probably meant to be a reassuring tone.

Remus didn't feel very reassured, not when Sirius was steering him to the life-sized statue of a Hippogriff at the end of the corridor and pushing him behind it and out of sight.

When he saw Sirius raise his wand and do a rather impressive bit of wandwork he held his breathe almost comedically while his eyes focused to the door.

After a few seconds passed without the deafening boom of explosions or blinding flash signaling their expulsion from Hogwarts Remus exhaled. Maybe he'd overreacted?

Then a pale, translucent film started to appear before them falling from the ceiling gracefully and Remus couldn't help but think that he'd probably been right to overreact. In fact as Peeves fully materialized before them he couldn't help but think that he'd probably under-reacted and that the situation warranted a lot more worry then he'd given it.

"What's this?" Peeves grinned at them in an unabashed show of lunacy cradling his knees to his chest as he allowed his body to slowly rotate upside down. "Students down by Filch's office? Old git won't like that too much."

Remus didn't have much experience with the poltergeist. He'd learned quickly in second year that lingering around, underneath, or in the relatively close vicinity of Peeves came with the possibility of him dropping apple custard on your head.

This was way when Peeves turned his beady, malevolent eyes onto him Remus shrunk back against the wall instinctually raising his hand to smoothen down his hair.

"When does Filch ever like anything, Peeves?" Sirius seemed unnaturally calm. He had leaned against the wall twirling his wand almost mindlessly as he looked down the empty corridor. "Well... Actually, I have seen him looking happier then usual."

Sirius had not met Peeves' eyes but he turned to Remus, forcing the smaller boy to muster as much dignity as he could and push himself from where he had flattened himself against the wall.

"It was a disgusting sight really. That horrid, slimy old man walking about with that grin on his face."

"Grin?" The smile from Peeves face fall as he rightened himself inching closer to Sirius as though afraid he'd heard incorrectly.

"Yes old bloke was practically _beaming_. That's really why I called you - I was worried for a minute. Thought they'd finally managed to you expelled from the place."

Peeves was definitely frowning now his dark, beady eyes flickering over to Filch's office as though contemplating going there and forcibly wiping this 'grin' off of his face.

"But I'm glad you're alright Peeves old boy. I guess you can't win all the time, right? Filch must get one over on you some times."

The idea of Filch having anything over him seemed to infuriate Peeves and he sat legs crossed as his arms crossed across his chest defiantly, "The day that old git wins anything will be the day I leave this place."

"Oh?" Sirius dark eyebrow had arched gracefully into his hairline and Remus knew that this was what he was waiting for, this was the break that Sirius wanted.

"Well... If you're still up for it..." He let his sentence hang and like bait it drew Peeves in closer as he dipped lower to come face to face with Sirius.

"There's this new armoire. Dreadfully expensive looking." Sirius hadn't even really suggested any juvenile action against the inanimate object but the way Peeves mouth stretched to form an eerie grin assured Remus that he'd just been an accomplice to an accomplice of yet another broken rule.

"Where'd he put it?" Peeves had grabbed the curled tips of his shoes and began to sway side to side eyes wide in what Remus could only identify as enthusiasm.

Was it really that easy? Remus thought as he watched the proverbial wheels turn in the poltergeists' head.

"Third Floor hidden in the trap door of the sealed off room."

Apparently - it was.

Peeves wasted not one second and without even a parting word to the two boys shot upwards, obviously intent on wiping the grin from Filch's face.

"I don't remember seeing Filch smile," Remus said after some time eyeing the ceiling where the man had disappeared through.

"Neither do I, but you never know... We've got to take precautionary measures," Sirius said as he stuck his head out from behind the statue they were both currently shrunken behind.

They waited for a few minutes in stunned silence, Remus trying desperately to _just breathe normally_ and trying not to look as anxious as he felt.

Another minute passed before a resounding crash came from above and Filch's door was thrown open.

"Peeves! I'll get you out for this!" Filch screeched madly as he slammed the door and began hobbling off in the opposite direction of where Remus and Sirius were hiding Mrs. Norris hot on his trails.

Sirius didn't even pause as he rushed to the door and flung it open declaring in a remarkably loud voice, "Your heroes have arrived!"

By the time Remus entered the room, at a considerable slower and quieter pace than Sirius, both James and Sirius were engaged in a strange version of some foreign dance.. Maybe Danish... or Bulgarian Remus thought as he watched the boys spin each other by their linked arms, squatting and standing in sudden jerky movements, feet kicking out in strange intervals as they laughed manically.

Remus edged over to Peter who seemed to be the only sane person in the room and they watched the two boys continue their awkward squatting-dance until their knees seemed to protest and they gingerly stood up.

"Bloody Filch had us in here scrubbing his floor. Can you believe it?" James nose had scrunched up with the indignity of it all and he scowled at the remaining large section of dirty floor.

"Wands?" Sirius inquired.

"Gone. Crash?" James countered as he moved around the room edging dangerously close to Filch's desk.

"Peeves. Anything?" Sirius had walked over to peer at the chains that hung menacingly from the ceiling in the corner of the room, smiling at them almost fondly before moving on.

"Not yet," James was rifling through Filch's desk casually opening draws and taking out files.

Remus didn't dare ask the two dark haired boys. He instead settled for raising one brow in Peter's direction to which the boy replied with a slight shake of his head before collapsing in the nearest chair.

"All this manual labour is hurting my back," the chubby boy complained massaging his back.

Taking pity on the boy Remus pulled out his wand and with a flick of his wrist the discarded brushes began scrubbing furiously at the floor.

He made the mistake of looking pleased with himself for a moment too long however because when James looked over at him he snorted in what managed to be a hostile manner but thankfully said nothing.

"Found it," came Sirius' excited voice as he straightened from the bottom draw of Filch's desk looking victorious.

When James moved to squat down at the draw Remus' curiosity got the better of him and he moved to peer over Sirius' shoulder.

"Dungbombs, Filibuster fireworks, Acid Pops, Shock -O-Chocs... Yes!"

Sirius cradled an armful of band and apparently confiscated items looking like Christmas had come early, judging from the way James' hands twitched almost spastically, Remus had to guess that in their eyes it probably had.

"Fantastic," James said at last as he moved to start piling the confiscated items into Sirius' robes, Sirius shoving as many products down his own trousers as he could fit.

When there was no more conceivable space to put any more mischievous products into any of Sirius' pockets the dark haired boys turned on Remus who took an almost involuntarily step backwards.

"Sirius, make the prefect take some," James whined as he dumped an armful of products into Sirius' outstretched hands.

The boy frowned at James but made no moves to drop the products and after alternating between giving Remus sheepish looks and staring intensely at the floor, Remus threw his hands up in defeat.

"Oh for heavens sake! Just give them here," he said snatching the products from Sirius. He spent a bit more time than strictly necessary as he patted down the folds of his cloak, head bent in an attempt to hide the embarrassingly bright color that had seeped into his face at Sirius' pleased grin.

"Well at least tonight wasn't a complete waste of time," James said as he moved towards the door opening it to peer out into the corridor.

Remus opened his mouth, thinking it best to tell James that detention wasn't meant to 'waste his time' but instead to reign in his deviant behavior, but closed his mouth after spotting the edge of a Dr. Filibuster firework poking out from his own trousers.

"Shit!" James exclaimed as he slammed the door shut and pressed his back against it. "Filch!" he clarified after a second staring at Sirius in horror.

The weight of all the products in his pocket suddenly seemed a lot heavier and Remus shifted around as he pulled out his wand, eyes shooting around the room desperate for an escape.

Before a single spell could come to him, though he was sure he'd get in more trouble if he petrified the old caretaker, Sirius moved beside him and grabbed the firework that was poking out from his pocket.

Pulling him to the side of the door Sirius turned to him saying, "Make sure you're ready to run."

Remus nodded but couldn't find the words to speak as he was staring intensely at the firework in Sirius' hand. Oh God, he was going to kill Filch wasn't he?

With a last nod at James, who had moved to join Peter in kneeling on the floor brushes in hand, Sirius muttered a quick spell and a jet of water hit the firework.

The door opened at that second and Sirius angled the firework to the ceiling as he released it.

Dr. Filibuster didn't disappoint. The ceiling exploded in a sympothy of sparks and bright, blinding lights.

Sirius grabbed the edge of the door and threw it fully open, slipping past Filch as he ran with Remus in hand.

Filch lowered his arms from his eyes in time to see the hem of Remus' cloak disappear from his room and by the time he'd hobbled outside the boys were half way down the corridor.

"I'll get you go out, you brats! Wait till Dumbledore hears of this!" He screamed as he hobbled after the boys.

As they rounded the first corridor Sirius pulled Remus towards the stairs and they bounded up the flights of stairs. Third floor, fourth... Remus paused for a minute tempted to peer down the staircase to see how close Filch was.

"Are you mad?" Sirius hissed as he grabbed the boy by his forearm and pulled him back, "Don't let him see you're face."

When they'd reach the Fifth floor something horrible happened, it seemed Hogwarts was not on their side as the stairs leading to the Sixth Floor decided to move to the North side of the castle.

"Damnit," Sirius said as he spun backwards, the furious breathing of Filch could be heard as he dared the stairs. The devil of a caretaker would be upon them in any minute.

"This way."

Sirius steered Remus towards their only option down the Fifth Floor corridor, only stopping their race when he spotted something in an adjacent corridor, "Of course!"

The boys turned back and disappeared down the hall just as Remus spotted the front of Filch's boot appear down the hall.

"Gregory the Smarmy."

"What?" Remus asked as he turned towards Sirius.

The boy said nothing but pulled Remus towards a statue of a plump, devious looking wizard. Ah Gregory the Smarmy indeed. Remus remembered Slughorn praising the servile potion master in a way that would've made the old wizard proud.

Stepping behind the statue Sirius simply disappeared. Remus blinked a few times before looking over his shoulder to the point where Filch would appear any second ready to give him detention for the rest of his days.

"What are you doing?" Sirius' hand reappeared from behind the statue and before Remus could do much of anything else, he dragged the boy into the darkness.

"Oh," Remus breathed quietly. They were in a small, confided space the stone walls on either side of them barely left enough room to fit two Peters. Behind Remus where they'd entered from clearly led to Hogwarts but behind Sirius was a long passageway that deemed to descend well through the castle and possibly all the way to the grounds.

Sirius was pressed hazardously against his chest, leaning impossibly close as he reached over Remus' shoulder trying to hear any sound from the corridor they'd just escaped.

"We can't take the passage," Sirius said nodding towards the direction of the enclosed, stone path, "Not tonight anyways," he drew back to flash Remus a beautifully perfect smile, "We'll have to wait until Filch is gone and go back through the corridor.

Remus didn't trust himself to speak. Sirius' proximity was doing funny things to his insides and he felt himself becoming disorientated as Sirius turned his head towards him, his breathe fanning against Remus' cheek.

Flushing something terrible Remus found himself praying that Sirius could not see the color of his face. He certainty didn't need Sirius thinking that Remus was having perverse thoughts about him, not that the way Sirius' body hovered in front of Remus was helping matters.

Remus cleared his throat attempting to say something witty but when Sirius lowered his head he found himself staring into the boy's silver-grey eyes and felt all his cleverness slip from him.

Licking his lips Remus averted his eyes and fidgeted slightly trying to get his hips as far away from Sirius' as the space allowed.

"Stop," Sirius' hand reached out to steady Remus' waist and held it firm for a minute. The boy had lowered his head and had taken a deep breathe, his voice sounding raspy and uneven, before continuing, "Stop moving."

Sirius kept his hands around Remus' waist and had lowered head to rest on Remus' shoulder.

Remus once again found himself in a situation where he didn't know what to do. He cleared his throat again and said rather weakly, "I hope James and Peter are alright."

Sirius was silent for a minute simply taking deep breathes through his nose and shakily exhaling from his open mouth, his moist breathe tickling Remus' neck.

"Yeah," he muttered after some time.

Remus couldn't help but think he was missing something. Was he doing something wrong? And why the hell was he so nervous? It wasn't like he'd never been this close to Justin so why did he feel completely out of sorts when it was with Sirius?

The boy still had his hands rested on Remus' waist and although the situation had similarities to the one he'd been in with Justin, Remus couldn't bring himself to feel scared.

He knew Sirius wouldn't hurt him. Although the two hadn't been friends for long, only a few short weeks, the boy had been nothing but kind to him.

He knew that he'd thought the same of Justin, but... still. It was irrational and he while he knew it he just couldn't feel threatened.

Sirius finally lifted his head from Remus' shoulder and the boy welcomed the absence of his distracting breathe on his neck. When he looked up to see the smoldering look that Sirius was giving him he almost wished to have the distracting puffs of air back on to his neck.

"Sirius..." Remus wasn't sure where he was going with his sentence but felt it die as the boy's name spilled from his mouth.

Unnerved by the intense look Sirius was giving him, the boy's body rigid as his fingers dung into his waist, he bite down on his bottom lip chewing it before releasing it and wetting it with his tongue.

His tongue had barely disappeared back into his mouth before Sirius was upon him.

The boy's mouth met his with such a hunger that Remus gasped his hands reaching up to rest on Sirius' shoulders.

Sirius didn't shove his tongue inside of Remus mouth but instead pressed his lips eagerly against Remus' before pulling away.

"Sorry," he said but his hands made no movements away from Remus' waist and even as he spoke his eyes dropped down to Remus' pinkened lips.

"No it's -" Remus didn't get the rest of the sentence out, not that he'd really knew what he had been planning on saying, instead he let his hands squeeze Sirius' shoulders silently encouraging him as the boy continuously pressed eager kisses against his lips.

Relaxing against the wall Remus sighed in content and reached up to tangle his hands in Sirius' dark locks.

If possible, they felt better than they looked, all silky and perfect lengths, not like Remus' own tangled mop of hair.

Slowly, as not to scare the boy, Sirius slipped his tongue against Remus' lips clearly asking for permission.

After Remus had blushed furiously underneath him he tentatively opened his mouth, Sirius' tongue slipped into his mouth, flicking his tongue slightly before twirling around to explore his mouth.

An embarrassingly loud moan ripped through Remus' throat and he pulled away quickly clasping his hand on his mouth as he stared up at Sirius in horror.

Oh God. Oh God. Oh God. He didn't want the boy thinking he was sexual harem or something.

Sirius only smiled before leaning to rest his forehead against Remus', "Alright?" he asked.

Nodding Remus relaxed against the boy as he angled his face up for another kiss.

He found himself completely relaxed held tight in Sirius' arms, he wasn't thinking of the fact that Filch was sulking around out for their blood, or that his pockets were full of enough products to get him dismissed as a perfect, or even that James would probably sneer nastily at him once he got back to the dorm room.

All he could think of was Sirius' warmth as he pressed against him, the softness of his lips, and the gentleness of his breathe when he moved away to whisper quietly into Remus' ear.

When Remus reached up to grab the side of Sirius' face and guide him back towards his mouth he could honestly say that he was happy, that this moment was absolutely perfect.

* * *

Sirius was kissing him again.

This time was just as slow and tentative as the first night, a week ago, behind the statue of Gregory.

The boy had his hands back around Remus' waist and his warm, broad chest pressed firmly against Remus'.

They were on the Third floor or was it the Fourth? Remus couldn't really be sure. His brain had completely blanked when Sirius had told James and Peter that they'd catch up to them, dragging Remus away with a hungry look in his eyes.

"Couldn't stop thinking about you," Sirius whispered one of the times that he'd removed his lips from Remus'.

Remus whined, in a way that he would never have allowed himself save for his current situation, and used his grip on Sirius' hair to guide his mouth back where he most preferred it, pressed gently against his own.

He heard Sirius chuckle lightly against his lips and tugged on a handful of black hair until the noise subsided.

The quiet and warmth of the moment was suddenly broken by a very purposive noise, the clatter of a suit of armor.

Sirius pulled away turning his head towards the noise and when Remus caught sight of the people standing by a dented suit of armor a few feet away from them, he thought his heart would stop.

Romulus seemed to have locked eyes with Sirius and his breathe came out in sharp, short intervals, his right hand still formed into a fist.

Amlise was glancing between the two brothers wildly. She took a quick look at Romulus and then shot Remus an almost apologetic look before taking the only option a clever Ravenclaw really could take. She wordlessly turned and walked back down the hall her long, black hair flaring out behind her as she turned down the nearest corridor without so much of a glance back in their direction.

From the look on Sirius' face Remus guessed that he wanted to do something similar, but instead he drew himself to his full height and dragged his hands away from Remus before pushing them into his pocket and smiling at his brother.

"Hey," he said in a voice that even Remus could tell sounded rather strained.

Romulus didn't so much as crack a smile and although Remus could've sworn that his left eye twitched he couldn't be sure if this was a good thing or not.

"Sirius," Remus said as he pushed himself off the wall his hands moving to flatten his shirt, "Maybe you should go. I'll meet you in the Great Hall, yah?"

Sirius looked down at him gratitude flashing clearly across his face before he turned to nod in Romulus' direction and took off down the hall.

Sirius walked in the opposite direction of Romulus going further into the Third floor corridor and if Remus could guess, Sirius had willfully decided to double-back further down the hall than risk passing Romulus.

Staring at the direction that Sirius had disappeared down Remus heard his brother let out a shaky breathe before begin to take eerily loud steps in his direction.

When his footsteps stopped Remus turned to look at the boy.

He no longer looked angry. In fact he just looked kind of tired and something else that Remus couldn't quite place - was that sadness?

"Remie, what are you doing?" Romulus had brought his hand to rub his forehead in a way that reminded Remus of their father.

"Ugh," was Remus' brillant answer. He would have thought what he'd been doing had been pretty obvious.

"What are you doing with Black?" Romulus clarified, he had turned to lean against the wall and was watching Remus closely as he crossed his arms against his chest.

"What?" Remus frowned, "I like him..."

"You like him? What happened to McDonald?"

Remus said nothing but bite his bottom lip to a point where in became almost painful. He really didn't want to admit what had happened the other week in the Astronomy Tower, there was no way that Romulus would ever think he could take care of himself if he found out about that night.

"What?" His brother's eyes had narrowed suspciously and it was a testimony to how well they knew each other that he was able to pick up on the smaller boy's nervous body expression.

"Nothing. I don't want to talk about it. Just... we're... we're not seeing each other anymore," Remus explained weakly.

"So you jump to Black?"

Remus' face lit up in flames and he frowned angrily at the older boy, "No I didn't _jump_ to Sirius. It just happened, okay? I can't control who I like. Stop treating me like - like a _whore_."

Romulus' eyes widened slightly before frowning and shaking his head the sad look had returning to his face, "No Remie. You're not the whore."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Remus shot sharply his fists curling up at his side angrily.

"Really? You don't know what I'm talking about? Do you know how many of the Ravenclaws Black has made it with? How many of them I walk past crying in the Common Room cause he'd had it off with one of their friends a few weeks later? Do you really wanna be treated like that?" Romulus asked his nose frailing, "Cause I promise you, you'll feel like a whore when Black's done with you."

"It's not like that!" Remus screamed back at him angrily, "He's - We're -"

"He's what? You're what? What are you to him?"

When Remus remained defiantly silent his eyes growing suspiciously moist the boy sighed before approaching his brother and grabbing both his shoulders gently.

"Remie, I don't want to hurt you. I'm just trying to help. I know you genuinely like him, but people like Black, _Black_, he... it doesn't mean anything to him. It's just a bit of fun," Romulus shook his head before drawing Remus' tense body into his arms, "It's best to break things off with him before things get too far, alright?"

Romulus drew away to look into Remus' eyes but the boy had turned away trying to hid his overbearingly moist eyes.

Sighing Romulus squeezed Remus tightly one last time before letting go and turnign away.

He's wrong Remus thought vicously speeding towards the Great Hall. He's wrong. All he had to do was talk to Sirius, ask him what he was - what they were - and Sirius would prove Romulus wrong, he'd confirm their relationship.

Stopping at the doors of the Great Hall Remus looked towards the Gryffindor table scanning the students to try and spot Sirius.

His heart skipped a beat.

Then it plummeted straight into his stomach and Remus had to take a loud, shaky breathe to alleviate some of the pressure of the extra weight on his intestines.

Sirius, James, and Peter were all sitting in their usual area of the Great Hall. Peter appeared to be laughing at something James said, as the boy ruffled his hair looking throughly pleased with himself. Sirius was across from them and a girl with short, blonde curls, a Hufflepuff, Remus distantly noted, was sitting on Sirius' lap.

She had her arms wrapped around his neck and appeared to be whispering something in his ear. Remus couldn't see Sirius' face not with the girl's thick, blonde hair blocking his view and honestly he didn't think he could've handled it if he could.

Turning away Remus instead locked eyes with someone else in the Great Hall.

His brother sat at the Ravenclaw table with two boys talking animatedly in front of him but his eyes were trained on Remus.

The pity and disappointment that he saw in his brother's blue eyes were almost more than he could handle and he turned and fled the Great Hall.

Making his way to the very back of the library past the groups of studying Ravenclaws and the couple of Hufflepuffs whispering frantically to each other, Remus dove in between a dark alcove. Sliding down the wall as he finally, finally let his tears fall.

He was stupid. An absolute idiot.

Why else would he think that Sirius actually liked him? Actually wanted to be with him?

Sobbing Remus bite down on his knee as he tried to quiet himself. He had been stupid.

But he wasn't a stupid person. He'd take Romulus' advice. He'd end things with Sirius immediately.

Sure the boy was fun, and energetic, and loved to play his games and that was something Remus would always like about him but Sirius didn't get to play with Remus' feelings.

* * *

How'd you like this chapter? Did you think the reactions were believable?

I had to keep re-writing it cause the first scene either ended up being too much or not enough and I couldn't get it across how I was seeing it in my mind.

Lemme know what you think, hope you didn't find it too rapey (although if you don't understand what that means that's perfectly fine seeing as how I completely made that word up).

Thanks for all your reviews (I should've replied to everyone), follows, and favourites. I really do appreciate everyone taking the time out to read my fanfic. STILL BEAMING!


	7. Chapter 7: The Problem with Commitment

**Disclaimer:** I spend a lot of time thinking about how cool it'd be to _be_ J.K. Rowling to own these characters but if you've reached this far you'd know that the series would've ended much much differently. And so, by some strange rule of metaphysics that must mean that I am not her... Tragically.

Finally! I'm on time with an update. Thank _everything_. Enjoy.

* * *

**Chapter Seven: The Problem with Commitment**

* * *

Sirius sighed for the umpteenth time and rolled onto his back so that he could take discrete, upside down glances across the room.

"Sirius!"

A Transfiguration book launched itself at the lounging boy and hit him roughly in the chest.

"Ouch you bloody wanker. That's the fifth edition! Do you know how heavy this thing is?" Sirius asked as he sat up throwing the book violently at James' head to accentuate his point.

The berk just rolled gracefully off his bed landing to catch the book with the same sickening flare he often had when handling the Quaffle.

Sirius made the mistake of not looking away quickly enough and had to endure the stupidly proud smile that always formed on Peter's chubby face every time James did anything remotely impressive.

"Pay attention this is important," James reprimanded after he'd turned to drop the book back onto his bed.

"I'm listening to you," Sirius said sighing loudly and dropping back onto his bed. He waited a few seconds before turning his body to face the bed opposite his.

James eyed him in annoyance for a minute before continuing from where he had had to interpret himself, "As I was saying... The potions ready. We should slip it to them as soon as possible."

James paused to wait for his bed to finish bouncing, something it always did when Peter decided to flop down next to the boy, before declaring, "It should probably be sometime this week."

"What if we do it while they're practicing or something?" Peter suggested.

"No, not public enough," James turned to glance behind him, seeing Peter unwrapping a Chocolate Frog made him pause his brows furrowing in annoyance before turning back to speak in Sirius' direction, "We should do it when they have a game."

After a lengthy pause in which James patiently waited for Sirius to acknowledge that either boys had something that even remotely interested him, the boy dropped onto his bed ruffling his hair with both hands roughly, "Sirius, what the hell?

"Huh?" Sirius asked as he dragged his eyes away from where they'd been eyeing the empty bed across from his.

James almost decided to just continue on without him but after another quick glance behind himself seemed to think better of it when he realized that Peter was dropped tiny bits of chocolate onto his bed, this seemed to what drive James over the edge and he reached up and snatched the half-eaten frog from Peter's mouth before launching himself at Sirius' bed.

"What are you doing you crazy bast - " Sirius cried as James sat on top of him trying to force Peter's still-squirming frog into his mouth.

"Are you going to pay attention? Huh? Start doing some real work?" James asked as he sat firmly on Sirius' back pulling on the boy's black hair to get his face out of the sheets.

"Get off me you bloody wanker!" Sirius finally managed to flip onto his back throwing his spectacled friend off of him and on to the floor. "Stay down there," Sirius kicked at James' shoulder trying to force him back onto the floor.

James brushed his foot off roughly punching his calf before finally climbing back on to the bed, "Seriously though mate, what's got you so distracted?"

Sirius frowned shaking his head before flopping back down onto his back.

"Is it Remus?" Peter asked when he'd reemerged from digging through his trunk with three more unwrapped chocolate frogs.

Sirius grunted rubbing his hands against his face roughly, "His brother - errr - walked in on us just before dinner."

"Walked in on you doing what?" James asked with a wide grin his dark eyebrow arched high in amusement.

Sirius scowled at the boy and choose to continue as if he'd not spoken, "His brother seemed kinda pissed off and Remus told me he'd catch up to us at dinner."

"So you left him there?" James collapsed onto the bed laughing in an annoyingly loud way by Sirius' left ear.

Shoving him roughly enough to almost throw him off the bed Sirius smiled when James stopped laughing and instead latched onto the bed covers to steady himself again, "He asked me to. And it's his brother... I figured they'd want to talk about it alone."

"So what's the problem? I doubt Lupin's been murdered," James said after he'd move to the head of Sirius' bed, far away enough to evade any sudden attacks from the moody boy.

"Well it's just... his brother doesn't seem to like me."

"No? Wonder why..." Peter smiled with a twitching frog leg hanging from his mouth.

"Probably shagged one of his girlfriends. No doubt the guy doesn't want you to do the same to his brother... clever bloke that one is." James pulled his legs to chest in a quick movement to avoid the fist that Sirius had aimed at one of them.

"No you idiot. I've never touched Amlise and I wouldn't want to. They've been together for as long as I can remember noticing her."

"But the point still stands that he's probably trying to keep you from bending over his baby brother," James laughed before leaping off the bed narrowly avoiding another one of Sirius' attacks.

Annoyed at being evaded twice Sirius settled for instead throwing a rude gesture in James' direction before sinking into his pillows. It was strange. He was sure that he must've described most if not all of his nameless conquests, had gone into explicit details, had probably used the phrase 'bent her over' once or twice, but somehow when it was referring to Remus - it felt crude, and inappropriate and some part of Sirius burnt in shame.

"Don't be coy, how far have you gotten with the little prefect?" James asked from across the room as he fanned out his covers trying to get off the bits of chocolate.

Sirius was saved from having to answer when the sounds of someone pausing by their door made both boys turn and by the time Sirius had sat up in his bed, the door was opening.

Remus strolled purposively across the room without a word to any of them, dropping his bag by his bed before searching through his bedside table for something.

"You okay?" Sirius asked smiling from where he was trying to crane his neck to properly see what the boy was doing.

"Fine," came his grumbled answer as he straightened up and started pulling books from his bag.

"Missed you at dinner," Sirius tried again.

"Did you now?" Remus asked finally looking up at him, his amber eyes hard as he sized him up before dropping his books on his bedside table loudly.

"Ughh... Yes?" Sirius wasn't sure exactly what was going on but he could tell that whatever was happening wasn't good.

"Could've fooled me," Remus muttered before turning away from him and strolling into the washroom slamming the door loudly.

Sirius turned to the two other boys his eyes wide in confusion. What just happened?" he whispered furiously as he approached James' bed.

The boy was smiling widely while shaking with laughter, "No idea. But I can guess that you probably won't be bending him over again anytime soon."

"I wasn't - " Sirius started to hiss furiously at the boy before deciding to it was a waste of his time, "Peter? Have any idea what that was?"

The boy shrugged before his eyes darted to the door and he supplied, "Probably something his brother said."

Sirius was about to ask the usually observant boy more questions but the bathroom door had banged open and Remus was strolling across the room back to his bedside table.

"Where you going?" Sirius asked in what he hoped was an amiable tone.

"Kitchens," Remus offered after a lengthly pause. When he turned to move back towards the door Sirius found that he'd retrieved a bit of chocolate that he'd apparently kept stashed for emergencies.

"Brilliant idea didn't get much to eat at dinner," Sirius rolled off his bed and stretched leisurely.

"Wonder why?" Remus muttered darkly but before Sirius could ask him to repeat it he had thrown the door open and started down the stairs.

The boys gave each other a quick look before flying out the room after him.

"You know it's past curfew, right prefect?" James asked from where he was a few steps behind Remus.

"If you're so worried you can stay behind, I don't remember asking you along," Remus snapped back before slipping out the portrait without a backward glance.

"Little shit," James called after him angrily.

Sirius elbowed him, catching one of his ribs, before turning to say, "Leave it. He's obviously in a bad mood."

"How do you think I feel with him around?" James retorted angrily shoving past the boy and moving down the corridor.

The trip to the kitchens was unusually quiet, even for when they were trying to avoid prefects, Filch, and Mrs. Norris, and Sirius had to fight the urge to run to the painting of the bowl of fruits when he spotted it down the hall.

Slipping into the warmth of the kitchens he greeted the house-elves kindly before moving to sit down at the heavy, wooden table in the centre of the room.

He tried not to look visibly disappointed as Remus choose a seat that was the furthest away from him and immediately turned to the house-elves to ask for whatever extra food they had.

As the elves started to bringing over warmed platters of baked potatoes, grilled chicken, and pumpkin risotto Peter had strolled in and with grandiose gestures started ordering them to 'Bring the deserts'.

Sirius could guess that one of Peter's favorite rooms at Hogwarts was the kitchens. While it was no secret that the boy loved to eat - just about anything - Sirius thought that he seemed to enjoy lording over the house-elves more than anything else.

The smaller, chubbier boy always seemed frightened to disagree with either Sirius or James and rarely spoke out of turn with them, but when they were in the kitchens Sirius saw a side of Peter that he hardly showed anywhere else.

He assumed that it had something to do with the fact that while Peter's family was obviously comfortable - they didn't come from house-elf money. The boy was probably just not used to having the power to command the small creatures who almost tripped over themselves in eagerness to fulfill his wishes.

Sirius thought of pointing out the way that Peter had stupidly paused with both an apple custard and lemon tart in his hands trying to decide which to eat first before shoving them both into this mouth, but when he turned in Remus' direction he found the boy glaring angrily at him.

"What? Have I got something on my face?" Sirius asked wiping at his nose while he smiled sheepishly at the boy.

He scoffed but didn't answer instead choosing to turn back to one of his own three plates of dinner.

"What's that?" James asked as he dropped down into the empty seat beside Sirius.

"That is a cake for Slytherin, Misers," a wide-eyed female house-elf replied her hands clutching together tightly from out of a worn potato sack.

"Cake? Why do they get a cake?" James had moved over to the large rack that contained a cooling chocolate cake.

"Is their Captain's birthday," the female elf had followed James to look down at the impressively large block of chocolate cake. "Slughorn asked Winky to personally bake it."

"McCowan's birthday?" James had turned away from both the cake and the beaming Winky to fix first Sirius and then Peter with such an intense look of unadulterated joy that Sirius was sure that somewhere in the castle a shiver had ran through McGonagall's shine at the sheer promise for mischief.

Peter's fork had paused on its journey to his mouth and the boy's mouth remained open as his eyes darted back and forth towards Sirius and James before finally landing on the cake.

"It's just too easy." Sirius heard the boy mutter before he shook his head wistfully and looked down at his own pile of desserts, "And I really wanted to finish..."

"Nevermind that now. Lads, the heavens are smiling down upon us. This is an opportunity so divinely ordained that we would be spitting in the face of the Gods themselves if we shrugged away from this," James said with a surprising amount of conviction before moving to stand at the head of the table.

Out of the corner of his eye Sirius saw Peter lean over to whisper at Remus, "Sometimes when he gets really eager he goes all weird and starts - well -" Peter gestured towards where James was now muttering furiously to himself, dating around the kitchen as he looked at everything else that was being prepared for the next day.

"When's this cake going to be served to them?" Sirius finally asked Winky who had moved to breathe eerily close to his knee.

"Tomorrow at dinner. Winky's going to decorate when it cools and serve it to them for dessert after they've had their lunch."

"Have you made the icing yet?" James asked as he moved back towards the cake looking down at it savagely.

"No sirs, Winky was just mixing the right colors when you sirs showed up," Winky gestured towards three bowls where the colors green, silver, and black where being stirred into a creamy substance.

"Huh," James said smiling wickedly, "Actually Winky. Do you think you can finish up the icing in the morning after breakfast?"

Winky frowned up at James while she clutched at her hands and swayed silently obviously torn between completing the orders that had been given to her by Slughorn and following a new set of order from James.

"You'll be able to finish the cake before lunch, just in time for the Slytherins to have it," James added quickly. When Winky looked back up at him happily he continued, "It's just... Well I heard the Slytherin Dorms were in a right state and it wouldn't do to have them eating cake and then going back to a messy room would it?"

Winky's wide eyes looked up unblinkingly at James as she shook her head slowly, "But some of the other elves are already assigned to clean the dormitories."

"Yes, I know," James shot back without missing a beat, "But there's this one dorm in particular. It's never cleaned right and everyone's always saying how great it would be if someone finally managed it."

WInky's eyes grew so wide that Sirius momentarily feared that they would somehow dislodge from her face.

"Anyways this room... Is a fifth year Slytherin boy's dorm. It's the one with all the horrible smells - always smells of ingredients and - and smelly haired gits. You should go clean it up."

"Oh Yes! Yes of course, Sir. Such a good idea, young master," Winky exclaimed happily as she scurried across the kitchens and out the door.

"That should take her all night. Snivellus' dorm smells disgusting," James said as he sunk down in the seat next to Sirius.

"How would you know?" Remus asked as he looked up from his now empty dinner plates.

"Planted a dungbomb in his bag earlier was suppose to go off after dinner,' James said grinning happily at Sirius.

"We've got to go get the potion," Peter said as he glanced around at the remaining elves, "We can't have one of the other elves finishing the cake or something."

"Peter, go with James," Sirius said as he chanced a discreet glance in Remus' direction. In the time that they'd spent in the kitchens the boy hadn't bothered to say anything to him and he wanted to know what he'd done wrong.

"Come on mate," James said as he clasped Peter on the back happily, dragging him away from the table while the boy grabbed desperately at the remaining tarts on his plate.

When they'd both disappeared out of the door with Peter's silent cries of, "James, just one more tart." Sirius laughed before moving to sink down into the abandoned seat by Remus.

Neither boys said anything and after Remus moved to fill his glass of pumpkin juice for the second time Sirius decided to break the silence.

"What happened at dinner?"

"I lost my appetite," Remus replied in the same short, controlled tone that he'd been using with Sirius all afternoon.

"Glad to see you've gotten it back," Sirius tried to smile in his direction but only faltered at seeing the way the boy scoffed down at his empty plate. "What did your brother say?"

"Nothing that wasn't true," Remus replied even more evasively.

"Well, I'm sorry if it upset you," Sirius reached over to put his hand on one of Remus' and was surprised when the boy moved it out from his reach.

"Don't be. It's not your fault I'm an idiot."

"Uggh," Sirius replied unintelligently. He really did wish that he could say something a bit more substantial. It was obvious that Remus was upset about something but without knowing exactly what Sirius was almost afraid of saying something to make it worst.

"You're not stupid," he said eventually settling for the best response he could think of.

It somehow made the situation worst.

Remus flew up out of the chair and wheeled on him angrily, breathing harshly as he spoke again, "Well I must be if I liked you!"

Sirius got all of two blinks in before the boy scoffed angrily at him again and turned away, throwing the portrait open before storming outside.

"Wait! Wait up!" Sirius yelled as he trailed after him. "What did I do?" Sirius had finally caught up with the boy and moved to stand in front of him, blocking his path.

"Nothing new. I suppose you've been at it for the last couple of years, haven't you?

From the angry scowl on Remus' face Sirius could tell that whatever he'd been doing was probably going to get him punched in the face soon and after he'd taken a step backwards he tried again, "Well whatever it is I've obviously upset you. I'm sorry for - whatever - whatever I did. I'm sorry."

"Wow, Black. That almost sounded convincing," Remus sneered his delicate features twisting up in a way that Sirius would've considered ugly on anyone else before he stepping around him and continued down the hall.

"I was sincere. As sincere as I can be considering you still haven't told me what's wrong."

Remus stopped for a minute turning to regard Sirius who had fallen in step beside him. Sighing heavily, his whole body seeming to sag with the movement, he shook his head slowly before saying, "No. Don't be sorry. I guess it's really not your fault. I can be a bit of an idiot."

They seemed to be making some progress. Remus' voice still had a hard edge to it and his jaw was clenched, in the same way that Sirius' aggravated father usually kept it the brief times he spent at home, but at least he seemed willing to talk about it.

"Wouldn't be surprised if it was my fault. I can be much more of an idiot than I think you ever could," Sirius said laughing lightly before taking advantage of Remus' improved mood and reaching down at take his hand.

"Stop it," Remus jerked his hand out from his grasp for a second time in a much more deliberate manner.

"Why? Touching you was fine a few hours ago. What happened? Was it something your brother said?" Sirius took large strides to keep up with Remus' shorter, faster ones.

"Edgecombe happened," Remus snapped as he took a sharp left turn and started to head towards the staircase.

"Edgecombe? The Hufflepuff? What's she got to do with anything?" Sirius asked genuinely confused as he easily leaped up two stairs to catch up to the practically running boy.

"Everything! She has everything to do with it, you idiot!"

"Stop! You're not making any sense," Sirius rushed out past the boy and stood in front of him.

Remus turned away from him leaning against the banister of the staircase as he peered over the edge. When he'd turned back towards Sirius the boy was dismayed to notice that his angry look had been replaced with a heartbreakingly saddened one.

"I saw you two at dinner."

Sirius almost wished that Remus would yell at him again, stomp around angrily or snap at him. He could handle anger - He got it from his family often enough and even occasionally from James when the two of them fought. But this - This sad, dejected look on Remus' face made something in him clench unpleasantly and made his mouth run dry.

"Remus, I -"

"You don't need to explain," Remus shook his head as he interrupted the boy, "I mean - It's not like I didn't know who you were - what you were like - it's my own fault for getting confused."

"Confused? What. No. You weren't confused," Sirius rushed out taking a step towards him before he seemed to remember that his touch would not be overly welcomed and stood shifting before him awkwardly. "It's not like that..."

"Really?" Remus' brow arched slightly before continuing, "Don't lie. I saw the way she was sitting on your lap. I know she wasn't giving you Herbology notes."

"No. But still it wasn't like that. She was just - just being - annoying, she was trying to talk to me."

"And she hasn't mastered the art of conversation carried out on her own two feet?"

"Yes. But - she's just - I don't know but it's not like that with us," Sirius tugged both hands through his hair flattening it unnecessarily before continuing, "It's different with you - with - with..."

"The word you seem to be struggling with is 'us.' You know the one? The pronoun that signifies more than one person - possibly a couple of some sort. Bet you don't get much use out of that word, huh?"

Sirius flushed in an unhappy way and finally dragged his eyes away from Remus. This was most definitely one of those times when he wished that he could say something to make the situation better. Shaking his head he tried again, "Really though, it's not like that with us."

"No? Have you slept with her?"

One look at Sirius' flushed, sheepish face and Remus stomped one of his feet in anger before darting past Sirius and up the stairs.

"Stop. It's not like that - I promise. That happened a while ago."

"A while?" Remus paused from where he'd stepped on the Sixth Floor landing to wheel carelessly around to him. "How long is a while to you? Does that mean a few days? Weeks?"

Sirius deliberately avoided the smaller boy's angry gaze while he gripped the banister. His 'a while' had actually been about two months ago. But Sirius knew, even without looking at Remus' impressive features scrunched up in anger, that this response would only aggravate the boy further.

"It was before you, I promise."

"Oh." Remus took a step down coming closer to him, "Before me?" He took another step, never breaking eye contact until he stood on the step before Sirius bringing his face close to the other boy's.

"So tell me -" Sirius could feel the sharp puffs of air falling across his cheek as the boy took deep, heavy breathes, "How long do I have?"

Seeing Sirius' confused expression the boy closed his eyes before continuing, "How long do I have until I'm 'a while'? Until I'm _annoying _too? Do I have a week? A month? Or just whenever you've gotten what you wanted?"

Sirius felt his breathe leave his body and he was almost dizzy with how much Remus' words seemed to sting.

"Do you even know?" Remus let out a particularly shaky breathe before edging even closer to Sirius, his lips hovering in front of his, "Do you even time it? Or do you just get so distracted by the next pretty face that you just forget about whoever was before?"

Remus had slipped both his arms around Sirius' shoulders and gripped them tightly, just short of being painful, "I don't think I'll be able to keep your attention, Sirius."

"You can. You have. I mean - Damn. I like you," Sirius moved his arms to rest gently around Remus' waist, "A lot. I like you a lot."

Opening his eyes Remus bite down gently on his lips, in a way that made Sirius instantly want to cover his mouth with his own, before continuing, "I like you too. A lot. But - I don't think this is gonna work."

Remus had began stroking the sides of Sirius' face with shaky fingers as he leaned to rest his head against his broad chest, "I can't keep your attention. And I don't want to have to be watching you or - or - constantly fighting and _struggling_ to keep you around."

"You won't be struggling," Sirius gripped Remus' waist harder as if he could keep the boy there through sheer strength alone. "I have all my attention on you. I'm not interested in Edgecombe or anyone else - I just - I have all my attention on you."

Remus stared at him wordlessly before giving him a small smile and dropping his hands to hold Sirius' gently, moving them away from his own waist. "No Sirius. You're a good friend. And I like you - you know I do. But I don't want to be a bit of fun for you or anyone else for that matter. I want - I _deserve_ something real."

Remus held Sirius' hands for a few seconds just staring down at them before he looked up at him and shrugged letting go of his hands and turning away to climb the stairs.

Watching him go Sirius knew he should say something - anything really at this point could do. He had to let him know that he really did like him - a lot. More than enough to ignore or physically harm the next girl who tried to climb into his lap. More than enough to keep his attention - all of it - on Remus where it had been for almost as long as Sirius seemed to remember noticing the boy.

For some reason he couldn't say it anything. He thought he knew what Remus wanted and he was asking more of him than anyone else ever had. No one had ever wanted to be _with_ Sirius - demanded that he be and remain loyal to them and them alone.

Sirius, if he was being honest with himself, knew he was something of a dog. He had moved from girl to girl (to the occasional boy) as he pleased. He'd go on a few dates, enjoy himself, and move on when he thought it appropriate.

Maybe it was this fear that kept him from going after Remus, from grabbing the boy and pulling him into his arms, from telling him that he wanted to be him and _only_ him.

Thinking back on it later Sirius would try to convince himself that Remus was being unreasonable. Why should he? Why should he have to force himself to stop seeing other people?

By the time Sirius made it back to the kitchen and sat gingerly down at the table, ignoring the eager house-elves who pushed plates of Chocolate mousse at him, he realized that he hadn't gone on a date with anyone else since he'd befriended Remus.

When James and Peter returned and the bespectacled boy started to pour the potion in the individual bowls of colored icing, Sirius found that he couldn't think of a single girl or boy that he seemed to find attractive.

And when he finally collapsed into his bed strangely exhausted, Sirius realized that he really couldn't think of anyone else he'd rather be on a date with apart from Remus.

* * *

There were a few things that Sirius should've noticed the next day. Things that were so blaring obvious that both James and Peter walked along side him with huge, teeth-baring grins. One of these things was that Hogwarts seemed to have taken the thick blanket of snow that had fallen overnight as a sign that it time to start preparing for Christmas.

The banisters were decorated in a thin sheen of warmed snow and had thick, white icicles clinging to them, the Entrance Hall was littered with small, deep green needles which signaled that Hagrid had at least began delivering some of the twelves trees that would soon stand in the Great Hall.

The suits of armors didn't appear to have formed their annual caroling group but Peter still eyed the two that stood outside the Great Hall with suspicion as the friends walked in for breakfast.

There was the usual chatter over breakfast which was punctuated by the surprised gasps of the First years who watched Filch or his best Charms students do particularly difficult and showy spells on one of the three trees that had been placed in the Hall.

"We couldn't had picked a better day if we'd tried," Peter said his eyes trained on a few fairies that fluttered overhead while he reached for the platter of bacon.

"We really couldn't," James was leaning over the table trying to catch a glimpse down the opposite end, "We love Christmas."

After flashing what Sirius was sure James considered to be a dashing suave smile at Evans, who in turn fixed him with one of the stoniest expressions Sirius had ever seen, he turned to nudge Sirius gently in his side.

Nodding towards the Ravenclaw table he leered before adding, "Turtleneck session. Don't you love it?"

Sirius grunted into his cup of pumpkin juice and after he'd rested it back on the table decided to take a look for himself.

'Turtleneck session' as James had so eloquently dubbed it was something Sirius usually enjoyed. In fact he would bet that it was something that majority of the male population at Hogwarts enjoyed.

Most girls decided to forgo their collared shirts for soft, cotton white turtlenecks that did justice to the size of their chests. Catching the eye of a good-looking Ravenclaw brunette Sirius nodded amiably before letting his eyes drop onto his plate.

While he could appreciate the beauty of the girl and her noticeably large chest, he just couldn't seem to stop thinking about Remus.

By the time he, James, and Peter had returned from spiking McCowan's birthday cake the boy had been in bed with his curtains drawn tightly shut. When they'd woken up his curtains were opened displaying a neatly made and empty bed.

Almost as if Sirius' insistent thoughts had summoned him Remus walked through the doors, nodding in the general direction of the Ravenclaw table before he dropped into the seat beside Peter.

Words were exchanged and Sirius was sure that some form of conversation was beginning around him but he couldn't seem to focus. He really couldn't think of much apart from how much he liked it when the sunlight hit Remus' hair from behind, his light brown strands glowing a deep golden color or how the longish strands in the very front of his face brushed across his cheeks when he turned to reply to Peter.

His lips - Oh God those lips - they were pink (but not as pink as after Sirius had had his way with them) but a pinkish hue nevertheless. They were full and when they parted almost seductively Sirius groaned - loudly.

Suddenly embarrassingly aware of the three pair of eyes that were now trained on him, their area of the table noticeably silent, Sirius forged a round of loud coughing before he busied himself with draining the remains of his pumpkin juice.

Once the conversation had started again Sirius picked at the pile of scrambled eggs on his plate and managed to choke down most of them before James was standing over him and smiling.

"Sirius, fancy a fag?" He asked grabbing Sirius' bag and holding it out to him.

Abandoning the hopes of choking much more down for breakfast Sirius latched on to the out that James had offered and threw the bag over his shoulder.

"Make sure Lupin doesn't sit us too close to the front, Pete," James said smiling at the other boy who immediately sank back into the chair beside Remus.

"What's going on?" James asked after he'd snapped his fingers to lit the end of his fag.

Shrugging, Sirius exhaled before pacing around the small overhead that the castle proved, staring out onto the snowy grounds.

After a few moments of silence where they watched a group of Third year Hufflepuffs trudge to the Greenhouses Sirius said rather quietly, "He said he doesn't want to see me anymore."

"Oh."

Sirius couldn't see James' expression but knew from his surprised tone that at least one of his dark brows had raised.

"And his left field rejection has hurt your ego?"

Exhaling heavily Sirius stopped pacing to shake his head before stepping down the steps, "That's not it. I just - I dunno."

"It's new?" James suggested and Sirius nodded hesitantly.

"He wants - God, I don't even know for sure what he wants. He saw Edgecombe yesterday," Sirius gave James a half-hearted glare and the boy had the decency to avert his eyes as an embarrassed flush colored his already reddened cheeks.

"Oh."

"Yeah. Oh." Sirius supposed that he should've been angry with James. It was _his_ fault after all. He's the one who'd laughed when Egdecombe had came over and told her to 'take a seat' gestured lewdly at Sirius' lap. The idiot girl had squealed, in a way that made Sirius seriously wonder what it had been about her that tempted him to sleep with her in the first place, and began making crude suggestions as to how he could be spending his Friday afternoons in his ear.

"Well why's he so bent out of shape? None of the others have ever minded."

He was right. None of the other girls that Sirius saw ever had minded when they saw him standing suspiciously close to another girl and if they did have throws of anger it was usually directed at the other girl - never him. It was almost as if they'd come to expect this of him and instead took the tactic of warning away anyone that might seemed to have caught his eye.

Remus was really the only one who'd expected him - who'd been disappointed that he - not someone else had been behaving inappropriately.

"Gods. He's wound tighter than I thought," James said rolling his eyes.

Feeling a hot, quick flash of anger Sirius rounded on him, "Really? When - If you ever get with Evans are you gonna want her messing around with other guys?"

James choked, shaky puffs of smoke flying from him, and as he reached up to wipe at his mouth he snapped back, "What's that got to do with anything?"

"It's the same damn thing."

When James looked like he was about to argue with him Sirius swelled in anger that surprised even him and he whispered harshly, "What? Why do you think it has to be different? Cause we're two blokes? We shouldn't want to commit. It has to be about messing around?"

James blanched which was a considerable feat considering the fact that his face had been steadily reddening from the cold.

He cleared his throat awkwardly and took a deep breathe but said nothing. Sirius couldn't blame him. They had never really spoken about Sirius' infrequent flings with guys, had never spoken about homosexuality as it concerned Sirius.

Sirius remembered when James had walked in on him last year, his pants had been below his knees and Wenlock had been doing a particularly fantastic job of swallowing his length. The two boys had stared at each other awkwardly while obscene slurping noises came from below Sirius' waist as Wenlock continued his exploits unaware of James' presence. It took one, loud moan from Wenlock to stir James, who seemed to have realized that the person on their knees tonguing Sirius for all they were worth was definitely male, and he had turned and bolted.

After they'd met up on the Battlements, Sirius had just somehow known that his friend would choose this quiet, remote location to discuss something of this nature, they'd just stood there staring out onto the grounds. When Sirius finally turned to James scared out his mind that he was about to loose the best, and only real friend he'd ever had, the boy had done something utterly surprising. He'd _laughed_.

Shaking visibly James had removed his glasses as he wiped the tears that had collected on his lower lashes and then seeing Sirius standing there, so unsure and unusually hesitant, he'd flown into another round of manic laughter.

Staring at the boy who had been doubled over holding his stomach tightly Sirius had shifted awkwardly. Was this the right reaction to his situation? Or had James finally cracked? Had Sirius been so wild and unpredictable that he'd broken the boy?

As if to test out his own theory, he let out a shaky bit of laughter before stopping. The noise sounded, as well as obviously forced, also rough and raspy and did not fit the situation or Sirius' mood at all so he had stopped.

Finally standing up, though he had leaned precariously on the edge of wall, James smiled at him mischievously before saying, "Finally run out of girls have you? Decided to make your way through the boys to give the poor Ravenclaws some time?"

At James' wide and mischievous grin Sirius had thrown his own head back to laugh. He remembered how relieved he'd been. How happy he was to know that nothing had changed - that he still had his brother.

But after that day the two had never spoken about the issue seriously. James would make lewd jokes about him hooking up with 'anything that had enough holes', and while Sirius was sure that James had attributed his homoerotic activity to raging hormones, he hadn't needed to nor had he wanted to correct him.

"So what are you saying?" James asked his shoulders tense as he threw the last of his fag down and crushed it beneath his boot.

Sirius briefly wondered if something similar would happen to their friendship by the end of the conversation.

"Nothing. Just. Just that it's no different. Then how it'd be with you and Evans. And I think - I think that's what he wants."

"But you're - you're not -"

"Not what? God James, you've seen me. You have - how can you say that I'm not?"

"Yes. But -" James shook his head as though he was in the act of denying something venomous. "But it's never been like that for you. You're not like McDonald..."

Sirius shrugged. James was right. He had never committed himself to a guy, it was usually just briefs flings that ended when he'd satisfied whatever urge had drawn him to the other boy. But then again, he'd never committed to a girl either. "How should I know? I've never committed to a girl either."

The boys stood in silence for a minute. Sirius was now staring intensely at James while the boy dug his hands into the pockets of his robes and looked out onto the ground.

"Maybe..." James broke off before clearing his throat and starting again in a much more firm voice, "Maybe this is a good thing."

At Sirius' incredulous gaze he continued, "Let's just call it quits. The bet." Here he paused to smirk at Sirius, "It doesn't look like you can get everyone out of their knickers. But if we call it quits I'm willing to admit that you could get most."

James had finally turned to him and with a jerky nod he turned back to the doors, "C'mon. McGonagall will go spare if we're late again."

As both boys wondered to the Transfiguration room, the halls relatively empty, Sirius let out a heavy exhale before saying, "I think that maybe... Maybe I - I want to."

James remained silent but Sirius could tell by the way his shoulders had stiffened that he'd heard him so he continued, "I've never done this before. But - It - It doesn't seem like it'd be so bad. I think I want to try."

James snorted, the force of it throwing his head back in a jerking motion and when he twisted his neck around to look at Sirius who had been trailing slightly behind him he replied, "You're so fucked." Snorting again, he laughed breathlessly before continuing, "You're first time committing to someone. And it's a bloke."

James quieted and after taking a quick glance down both directions of the corridor he stepped closer to Sirius, "It's a bloke. For a bet."

When Sirius shot him with a stony expression, very much like the one that Evans had given him that very morning, he shook his head, "I'm not judging. Just saying. It's kinda funny. You must really want to win."

Sirius opened his mouth but at that time McGonagall rounded the corner and spotting both boys said through her usually tight lips, "Glad to see you two have managed to get here before the bell rang. In."

Taking his seat beside James, Peter had thoughtlessly taken the one beside Remus, Sirius sat blinking stupidly at the board.

What had he been about to say to James? Could he deny what the boy said? Even scarier could he tell James that he really, truly had not thought of the bet when Remus had broken things off with him. Had not been thinking about the bet when he'd seriously considered the option of committing to Remus?

As he glanced at James, who was resting his chin in the palm of his hand while he stared longingly across the room, Sirius realized that they would have to talk about things - everything. How he felt about Remus, his homosexuality - _everything_ - and they'd probably need to do it soon.

* * *

By the time dinner rolled around James was insufferably excited. His hazel eyes were practically glowing and the large smirk had not left his face since morning.

"This is gonna be brilliant," he said for probably the fifth time as he quickened his pace to the Great Hall. "Absolutely brilliant."

Sirius didn't bother responding. Nothing he said, and he'd been trying all day, would quiet James or distract him from what was about to happen. Sirius had a sickening feeling that the blatantly gleeful grin that James was sporting would land him and Sirius (cause the teachers didn't seem to be able to comprehend that it was possible that one of them had acted alone) in detention.

But thinking of how well the last detention had ended, with pockets full of contraband items and Remus' lips pressed against his own, he just couldn't seem to bring himself to make any good attempts to avoid the inevitable.

Entering the Great Hall Sirius was pleased to see that Remus, who had Arithmancy before dinner, was already seated strategically at the table facing McCowan and the rest his Quidditch team.

Elbowing Peter who had made to move towards Remus, Sirius triumphantly collapsed into the seat beside the boy and was pleased that when he looked up from the book he'd been reading, he first give him a sweet, tentative smile and then nod in James' and Peter's direction.

Sirius was even happier to note that James was in such a good mood about the upcoming prank that he smiled at the boy before saying, "How was class, Lupin?"

If Remus was surprised, and Sirius certainly would've been with James' sporadic behavior, he didn't show and instead replied to the bespectacled boy kindly even remembering to ask how his latest Quidditch practice had been.

James blinked at him twice before his grin grew into something genuinely kind and started explaining in excruciating detail the events of his last practice while he reached out and grabbed at everything he could reach.

Smiling at the easy conversation that the boys were having Sirius forgot himself and inched closer to Remus until their thighs were pressed together.

Remus visibly tensed but he continued with whatever he had been saying nodding before he reached to his other side and pulled his bag into his lap. Putting the book that he'd been reading before the boys had joined him into his bag he inched away from Sirius and dropped the bag in the space between them.

Sirius flushed with color at Remus' rejection but when he'd looked up he realized that Remus' movements had been so subtle that no one else had noticed when the boy had inched away from him.

Remus clearly did not want Sirius touching him anymore but Sirius delighted in the fact that the boy was obviously not out to embarrass him.

Nearing the end of the meal James sat stiffly with what Sirius knew to be practiced effort. It would've looked suspicious if any of the boys kept throwing frequent glances at the Slytherin table before anything happened and James, Peter, and Sirius had learned early on that when all of them stared at anyone the person was likely to become so nervous that they were liable to flee the Hall altogether.

"Happy Birthday!"

James met Sirius' eyes and a wicked grin was stared between the both of them.

Finally allowing himself to look over at the group of excited Slytherins cowing around the extravagantly decorated birthday cake Sirius was pleased to note that McCowan sat in the middle of the commotion, looking stupidly pleased with himself.

James and Peter had turned away from the table to better see what was happening at the Slytherin table but this no longer seemed suspicious as most students were starting to strain their necks to look as well.

Turning in the hopes that something clever would come to him, Sirius noticed that Remus was not looking at the scene that the Slytherins were making as they clapped and cheered as McCowan cut his cake. Instead his eyes seemed to be glued to the large hourglass that sat behind the staff table.

The boy's intelligent amber eyes glanced back over to the table and seeing Pansy feeding the stocky boy a piece of the cake, his eyes flickered back to the hourglass and his mouth started silently counting.

Looking away from the perfect picture that Remus made as he, well did just about anything, Sirius watched in enthusiasm as he saw McCowan pass some cake around to the Quidditch team first, an 'early celebration for the Quidditch Cup' you could hear him boldly declare.

James scoffed in annoyance and he sneered at the boy, who had turned to smirk over at the Gryffindor Quidditch members, before turning away in disgust.

"Can't stand that pompous twat. He can go fu-"

A shrill scream cut off what sounded the beginning of a spectacularly colorful arrangement of words from James and when the boy looked up again the wicked smile had slipped back into place.

Staring with his mouth slightly open Sirius didn't think that this prank could've honestly gone any better.

McCowan was the first to turn. His short dark brown hair growing an inch before it started to twist and thicken and when the many pieces split open at the ends and formed mouths Pansy, who had been perched in his lap, shrieked and with a great jerk fell to the floor on her face.

She was the next to turn, her's even more fantastic what with the length of her hair, her long black hair curling and twisting until scales started to grow and formed numerous large, thick snakes that hissed violently and snapped their sharp teeth at her face.

The rest of the Quidditch team followed the couple, they were seated close enough to have their snakes actually fight with each other, often twisting and curling around one another to leave two exceptionally stupid Quidditch players stuck together.

Sirius was sure the first laugh came from the Ravenclaw table, and when he turned he saw Amlise's dark eyes trained on McCowan with a large smile on her face, and wondered if he hadn't tried to off her during of one of their matches.

The hall erupted in laughter, students leaping over to the Slytherin table, not in any real effort to help but instead edging closer to watch the confused, and scared members attempt to scurry out the hall.

This was proven difficult as Crabbe and Goyle demonstrated when their snakes caught together and both boys' head snapped painfully together when they'd foolishly tried to rip their snakes apart by jerking in the opposite direction.

"Idiots." Sirius heard Remus mutter under his breathe.

He was about to second the boys opinion when one look in the direction of the staff table had him pale immediately.

Professor McGonagall looked infuriated at this forbidden use of magic and as her eyes swept the Hall and locked onto Sirius he tried to put on his best face of shocked confusion, judging by the way her eyes trained on him before flickering over to James, Sirius was sure that she didn't buy it for a minute.

Oh well. It was worth it. Any number of detentions would be worth the way that the remaining Slytherins launched away from the table, some running to the nearest loo, thinking that their entire lunch had been poisoned.

Eventually Professor Slughorn and McGonagall were able to escort the panicking and still connected Slytherins out of the Great Hall and to the Hospital Wing and the hall quieted down some. The chatter was still louder than usual and every now and then a small burst of laughter would erupt from a group of students.

"Brilliant," James said when he'd turned back to the table. Hunching over silently his eyes flickered to each one of them, including Remus, before he said, "We all did some good work. That was one of our hardest pranks."

Remus snorted in what seemed to be in amusement and when he turned to smile at each of them he reached out to nudge Sirius' elbow with his own, "What do you think? Did that compare to what you guys usually do?"

"Definitely," Sirius said without missing a beat.

And it was true. There was something about in particular about this prank - although he couldn't figure it out - that made him exceptionally happy. Something about all four of them hunched over the table, all of them planning then implementing the destruction of Slytherin that just felt _right_.

And when the four of them left the hall before McGonagall could come back and 'slit their throats' Sirius was once again amazed at how well everyone seemed to be getting along.

Remus was suggesting jinxes that could be placed on the unsuspecting Christmas decorations and James paid close attention as the boy listed spells that Sirius was sure not even the bespectacled boy had heard of. Everything seemed to be getting better and Sirius wondered if he would be able to get Remus away from the others for a few minutes for them to work things out when two things happened very quickly.

Something slammed into Sirius' chest at such force that he immediately took a few steps backwards.

These few steps proved to put him and what he realized was a head of short, brown hair directly under one of the many mistletoe that had been scattered threateningly throughout the school.

By the time he realized what had happened Sirius leapt forward only to meet an invisible force and be knocked backwards.

"Shit," he said turning to glare at the short, brunette. She was cute this was something that not even Sirius could deny. She sported a short, chocolate brown pixie cut and her pale skin was stained with a pink blush as she looked up at him through her thick, dark lashes. "Shit," he repeated for good measure and dragged his eyes away from her and to the rest of his friends who stood wearily outside the bubble that had formed around Sirius and the girl.

Remus, in particular, stood oddly stiff his eyes looking up at the mistletoe before falling to meet Sirius' in a strangely steely look and focusing on a point just past him.

"Wohhoo Black!" came a cry from somewhere behind him and Sirius was horrified to see students start clapping and laughing as they gathered around the trapped couple.

"First one under the mistletoe. I'm sure he did it on purpose," one of the Prewett twins said as they both passed, the other shaking his head in amusement before they pushed past the crowd that had formed and disappeared.

"Shit." Sirius couldn't help but say once more.

"Sirius?"

Turning to look at the girl again, Sirius almost groaned aloud to see her wide, hopeful hazel eyes trained on him. He wanted to be angry at her, he really did. But he knew this wasn't her fault. How was she to know despite the fact that every other Christmas Sirius had leapt at the chance to be caught under the mistletoe with anyone (save a Slytherin), this year he really wasn't interested.

Looking down at her hopeful face he found that he really wanted it to be Remus. He really wanted to be in here with Remus - and suddenly he understood why Remus needed to be assured of this.

He wasn't sure what he'd do if he caught Remus and Justin under one of these damned mistletoes and right then he made his decision - he didn't want this.

Didn't want to be hounded by these random girls, didn't want them to feel comfortable dropping into his lap, or throwing out shameful offers of rounds in the broom closet, he wanted Remus. And he knew that one of the only way he'd actually get him was to let everyone else know that he was by all means unavailable.

With a last glance at Remus, who seemed determined to look anywhere but at the scene that was drawing everyone else's attention, he took a step back from the girl, whipped out his wand and aimed it at the mistletoe.

"Reducto!"

The excited chatter of the hall grew to halt as the mistletoe exploded into a pile of dust that trickled to the floor.

Spinning almost wildly on them Sirius paced the circle that had once been the barrier taking the time to glare at as many of them as he could, "Listen up you lot."

Remus' eyes were focused on him, and as his crossed arms fell limply to his sides, he gave Sirius one of the most startled, confused, and vulnerable expressions that Sirius had ever seen on the boy.

"None of that. None of this." Sirius gestured to where the mistletoe had been deviously hung, "I'll have no part in any of that this year. None. I'm going to say this once - just once so no one can say they didn't hear it from me."

The Hall was so quiet that Sirius was sure that if someone dropped a Sickle down the by Filch's office everyone would've heard from there. His own harsh breathe was so loud that he was sure that at least the first two rows of students could hear it. If he'd been less strung out on all the emotions he'd been dealing with since yesterday he probably would've marveled at the ease with which he had captured everyone's attention.

"I am taken. I'm committed to someone and I don't think they'd appreciate it if I went around snogging random birds under these damn weeds."

The 'random bird' that can been standing behind him made a loud, indignant noise and spun away from him fighting her way through the crowd.

Throwing a venomous look after her Sirius followed her lead and headed in the opposite direction, stomping through the crowd who obediently parted to let him through and without a backward glance to where James, Remus, and Peter was standing, bolted up to his dorm.

Collapsing onto his bed, Sirius stared up at the red fabric of his four poster bed pleased to find that his breathing seemed to be much quieter here, so quiet that he could hear the tentative steps that stopped outside the door.

Groaning in annoyance Sirius twisted on his side and away from the opened door. "Go away James. I'm not trying to hear it right now."

His bed dipped down and he felt a warmth at his back before he could tell James in more colorful terms to leave him alone, he felt a hand glide through his hair.

"You were amazing back there," Remus' soft voice said behind him.

Turning onto his other side Sirius was glad to see Remus settled beside him, his hair fanning out around his head as he laid back on Sirius' pillow.

"Thanks." Sirius was unable to say much more. In all honestly he was just so pleased to have Remus in his bed and wondered if he'd be able to wipe that stupid grin off his face before the other boy noticed.

Not a chance. Remus turned on his side to stare into Sirius' eyes and he felt something inside him growing incredibly warm when Remus gave him a shy, soft smile.

His tongue was back out again and it was wetting his lips as reached out to run his hands through Sirius' hair.

Leaning forward Sirius shamelessly pushed his head closer to the other boy, pleased when he felt both of Remus' hand stroking his hair, down his neck, and the sides of his face.

"I'm sorry," Sirius said into the silence some time later. "I should've said something yesterday. But... I dunno. It was new and I was confused. I didn't know what you needed or why it was important until well - until that bird was staring up at me expecting me to kiss her."

Remus said nothing but Sirius heard him let out a shaky breathe and soon felt the promising sensations of Remus tugging his hair.

Lifting his head Sirius held his breathe as Remus shifted closer and pressed his soft lips against his.

Sirius let his arm snake up to Remus' waist and before he could think of consequences he had pulled the boy to rest flush up against his chest.

Pausing he pulled away to look at the smaller boy's face. "This alright?" he asked in a whisper.

Smiling Remus nodded before pressing a chaste kiss to his cheek. "Yes. I'm not confused anymore or worried. I think - I think that you're serious about this - about us."

Grinning that stupidly uncontrollable grin Sirius barked out laughing before twisting over to hover above the boy. "Damn right I'm serious about us. If announcing it to half the school wasn't enough I can always write it on the back of Dumbledore's robes."

"What scares me is I don't doubt that you would," Remus gave him a cheeky grin before Sirius dipped down and kissed him. It was the kind of kiss that he'd been showering the smaller boy with ever since the night of the detention but somehow this one was different. Sirius wasn't sure if it was because he'd committed himself to the boy, he knew that no other girl would be throwing themselves at him, but whatever it was it made it better.

When Remus let out a delicious little moan from the base of his throat Sirius couldn't help but smile against his mouth and wonder why he'd been scared of committing to the smaller boy.

This was bloody brilliant.

* * *

Thanks for reading... As always I appreciate it.


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